


Are you the one

by fullmoontonightt



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alive Hale Family, All The Ships, Alternate Universe - Reality Show, Bad Jokes, Bonding, Everybody with everybody, M/M, Matchmaking, Reality TV, Stiles-centric, Stydia Brotp, because friends are important, cocky derek, finding The One, focus on friendship as well, i'm just fucking with all the ships here, if you wanna say soulmates I'll allow it, just a lot of love, really long fic, sterica - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-19
Updated: 2018-05-24
Packaged: 2018-12-31 18:46:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 26,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12138777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fullmoontonightt/pseuds/fullmoontonightt
Summary: If you’d told Stiles that one day he’d be the star of some stupid soulmate searching reality show, he probably would have laughed in your face.Yet, nothing was less true today.When Stiles enters mtv's reality tv show 'Are you the one' he doesn't expect anything serious to come from it. He especially doesn't expect to meet the love of his life.~ so many ships are in this I can't tag them all ~





	1. Part I

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everybody!!!! This fic is my return to the teen wolf fandom, even tho I know she dead hahahah. No but this is a fic I've been working on for over a year so I hope you guys like it. Def leave me comments as part II is not fully done yet and comments force me to finish it.
> 
> The fic is based on the mtv show are you the one. I do explain the rules of that show here and there in the fic but if you've never seen the show it might be a bit all over the place so I'll explain the concept of the show here:  
> \- The show is based upon a bunch of singles being matched up to their 'perfect match'. The goal of the show is for the singles to all find that perfect match and win a million dollars. They can do this through sitting next to their partner at ceremonies: if everyone is sitting next to their perfect match they win! Every week they have one of these ceremonies and they get to see a number of beams. These beams represent the number of perfect matches that are sitting next to each other.  
> \- There's also a way for them to find our a perfect match for sure: the truthbooth. A couple can go into the truthbooth and find out if they are a perfect match. One couple a week gets to do this. This couple is chosen by everyone. But in order to get selected to be able to go up to the truthbooth the couple needs to win a weekly challenge. 
> 
> So blah blah blah just go read now loves and enjoy xoxoxo

If you’d told Stiles that one day he’d be the star of some stupid soulmate searching reality show, he probably would have laughed in your face.

Yet, nothing was less true today.

It was all Scott’s fault really, that Stiles had gotten stuck here. It had been his idea to make that  video of them and sending it in as their application for the mtv show while they were drunk and not remembering about it until their acceptance emails came in. Stiles has no clue why the producers of the show chose them - he’s seen the video and it’s not attractive-  but they had.

And then it was kind of too late to back down.

Also, Stiles could actually really use the money. If he wins this game he gets one sixteenth of one million dollars. Which was something he just couldn’t say no to. Hell, he could pay off his college debts with that, could give his father enough money to pay off the medical bills they still have standing open because of his mom. Refusing it would be selfish.

So yeah, it’s now been two and a half weeks since the filming for the show had officially begun and to be honest it was a lot more laid back than Stiles had expected it to be. Aside from the weekly challenges they have to do in order to win dates and the occasional stirring by the producers, he and the other contestants were free to do whatever the hell they wanted.

And his fellow contestants weren’t too bad either, in fact Stiles likes most of them.

Except for Jackson, Jackson’s an ass.

So yeah, here he is, sipping contently from his iced lemon juice cocktail as he studies his fellow contestants interactions with each other. It’s hot out, the sunlight creating playful reflections in the swimming pool’s water. Cora and Breaden are in the pool, sharing one of the inflatable pool rafts they’ve got dobbering around in there, happily chatting with Isaac, who’s clearly trying to make a move on the younger brunette. Stiles grins.

He gets called out of his intense studying session - yes it’s studying, he needs to know these people if he wants to win this game- when Lydia starts making annoyed huffs and sighs from the sunbed next to his. He turns to her, eyebrows raised. “You okay Lyds?”

She lowers the psychology magazine she’d been reading in favor of looking at him with expiration in her eyes. “No. I’m done with all these idiots here wasting my thruthboots.”

Stiles barks out a laugh, he should have seen this coming really, Lydia’s been annoyed all day. They’re voting what couple to put into the truthbooth today - therefore finding out if that couple is a perfect match or not - and Lydia and Stiles both hadn’t been glad with the options  they could chose from.

Lydia’s the only person around here Stiles can actually talk strategy with.  She seems to be the only one that understands that this game can’t be won by the romantic bullshit the show is advertising, but that it needs to be solved like an equation. Lydia understands that, knows that. She’s smart - crazy smart- and her sense of humor and sharp tongue quickly made them close friends.

“I’m serious Stiles, these people don’t seem to realize that they shouldn’t be fucking around.”

Stiles’ laughter turns into a small grin as he looks at his redheaded friend. “Literally.”

Lydia sends a glare his way.  “This is why you haven’t been asked on a date yet.”

Stiles pretends to be hurt for a second before regaining seriousness. “No but you’re right Lyds, people need to get their head into the game. So far I don’t feel like anyone’s actually chosen someone they think they could be a match with, they just pick someone they think they can win the challenge with.”

Lydia shakes her head in what seems like disgust. “Have you seen the couples of today? Aiden and Kira? Who possibly thought that would work?”

“Like I said, they aren’t thinking about whether they match or not. They just want to win a date.”

She nods, a disappointed sigh falling from her lips. A silence forms between them, but Stiles can see Lydia tilting her head in thought and goes to lie down on his sunbed, preparing for whatever she’s about to say.

The clearly judgemental, “Not that you’ve been doing much better.”, was however not what he expected.

Stiles frowns, sitting back up again. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

He releases a sigh when she purposely doesn’t answer him. “Is this about Malia again?”

Lydia shrugs innocently as she raises her glass to take a sip of her sugarrimmed drink. Stiles feels annoyance fill up his chest. “For the last time Lydia, I think she could be my match.”

“Why?” Lydia asks him, a challenge in her eyes. “Because of the intellectual conversations you two have?”

“Hey,” Stiles starts, feeling the need to defend Malia, “she can be smart.”

“Come on Stiles, the girl’s an idiot.” Lydia says as she picks back up her magazine. “You can do better than an idiot.”

Stiles rolls his eyes where she can’t see it, knowing she’d give him shit for it if she knew.  He supposes that on one hand Lydia does have a point, sometimes talking to Malia can be tiring, especially when he tries to steer the conversation towards more serious topics. But he likes her, okay? She’s different from most girls, she’s honest, she’s straight forward. She’s rough, but in a good way.

“I like her okay, she’s..she’s real. She’s herself.”

Lydia looks back up, the look in her eyes a little less harsh. “Just because she’s herself doesn’t mean that she’s right for you.”

“Okay Lydia,” Stiles huffs out,  “like you’re one to talk. I mean, Jackson really?”

Lydia lowers her round and probably expensive sunglasses to glare at him. “I have my reasons for my interest in him and you know it. And at least Jackson can handle me.”

Stiles feels his eyebrows rise in slight offense, mixed with curiosity. “And Malia can’t handle me?”

Lydia looks his way, an amused smirk marking her lips. “No sweetheart, you can’t handle Malia.”

Stiles scoffs, opening his mouth to protest, when a creaking sound can be heard from the sunbed to his right. He turns to see his best friend Scott lowering himself on it dramatically, basically ploffing down on the orange striped cushions. Scott doesn’t say anything to start up a conversation, but the loud sigh he releases as he dramatically stares up at the sky tells Stiles that he does want to talk.

Stiles feels like rolling his eyes at his friend’s melodramatics, but does turn towards him. “What’s up Scott?”

Scott looks his way, his eyes big and helpless like those of a lost puppy. “I don’t think Allison likes me.”

Stiles can hear Lydia snicker from behind him and sends a quick glare her way before returning his focus on Scott. “And why’s that, buddy?”

“She’s been spending time with Jackson today.” Scott says Jackson’s name like it’s venom that could poison his mouth, which to be honest it probably is.  “And if she likes Jackson how could she possibly like me?”

Where Stiles had decided right from the start of this game to go into it with his brains, to try to calculate who his match might be, Scott had done the opposite and went with his heart. The boy claims that the moment he first saw Allison smile, he knew she was his perfect match.

Personally Stiles thinks it’s pretty fucking dumb of Scott to focus all his attention on just the one girl, and he’s told him so, but Scott won’t be convinced. Apparently Allison’s the one for him, even if she doesn’t realize it yet.

Stiles isn’t so sure. Allison’s a sweet girl, friendly and genuine, but she hasn’t shown much interest in Scott. Actually most of their interactions have been Scott trying to gain her attention and her just..not noticing.

But he doesn’t say any of that, instead he just reaches over and squeezes Scott’s shoulder supportively. “She’ll come around, buddy. You’re a great catch.”

\--

Stiles throws his head backwards, laughing loudly at what Allison just whispered in his ear and takes another sip of whatever the fuck he’s drinking. He stopped keeping track of what was in Cora’s mixtures a while ago, but he knows he likes this one. It’s good, sweet and lined with a kick of alcohol.

The music’s hums loudly around them, the bass of it filling up the room, and Stiles is having a great time. Kira and Allison are laughing next to him and before he knows what’s happening they’re dragging him to their improvised dance floor. Their dancing varies, moving from quick, innocent and fun to close and personal. Allison’s a great dance partner, but when Erica and Danny join in Stiles knows he’s met his matches. Their dancing quickly turns into shameless grinding, their bodies aligned together, hot breath in each other’s necks, hips moving and clashing to the beat of the music. Stiles licks his lips as he realizes this is basically a wet dream come true.

After a while Stiles decides it’s time to rehydrate, so he excuses himself and rushes to the table in the kitchen where they keep their boos, still high on adrenaline. Derek’s standing there, leaning against the wall with his eyes closed. His muscles are bulking out from underneath his shirt and Stiles unconciously licks his lips. His eyes wander around Derek’s features a little bit too long before he speaks up.

“Derek? You okay?”

The other guy opens up his eyes, the hazel green colour of them boring into Stiles’, before he kicks himself of the wall. “I’m fine.”

He then walks towards the kitchen counter and pours himself another drink.  Figuring he probably owns Stiles somewhat of an explanation he looks back up. “Parties just aren’t really my thing.”

Stiles can feel a small grin coming to his lips as he goes to lean against the opposite kitchen bar. “Then maybe you’re in the wrong place.”

“I know.” Derek says as he looks down, a seriousness working its way into his features. “I really am.”

Stiles can feel his smile ebb away as he realizes Derek is being serious. He swallows, not knowing hot to respond to this unexpected confession, instead looking down at his cup, swirling its contents. “That sucks man, I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine Stiles,” Derek says as he takes what looks like a too large sip out of his cup, “don’t worry about it.”

Stiles can’t get out another word before Derek’s already walking out of the kitchen towards the living room, where their house party is still going strong.

Confused Stiles looks at where Derek disappears in between their partying housemates and he swallows when he feels his pants tightening. He quickly grabs one of the bottles and pours himself a new drink, needing some distraction.

\--

“Hell yeah!”  Stiles shouts out, trying to morph his face into a genuinely ecstatic expression, as he and the others answer to one of the worst jokes their host Ryan has made this far.

“Cut, cut, cut!”  Their director Finstock, a strangely intense man who seems to both hate and love Stiles, yells from where’s he standing behind the row of cameras. “For fucking sake Stilinski, would a little genuinity hurt you?”

Stiles sends an annoyed roll of his eyes Scott’s way, who huffs out a laugh. The whole fake looking  excited thing wasn’t something Stiles did well.

“Sorry sir.” Stiles offers when he sees that the vein on Finstock’s forehead is still throbbing angrily.

Finstock just waves his hand in a dismissive gesture. “Nevermind Stilinski, we’ll just get a shot of Paige instead. God knows that will look better.”

Stiles frowns, feeling slightly hurt at the insult. He can see a pleased smirk on Jackson’s face at Finstock’s comment and he feels his frown deepen. Fucking hates Jackson.

They’re on the beach for their weekly challenge, of which the three winners are then allowed to go out on a date. It’s a girls challenge this time and Stiles won’t pretend he’s not relieved at that. He hates doing challenges, especially since most of them are physical.

It’s not that Stiles is that awful at exercise or anything, but just a brief look at the muscular torsos of guys like Boyd, Derek and even his own Scott, it’s clear he can’t compete.

The girls run over the beach, sand flying everywhere as they all rush towards the piles of wood and start building..whatever they’re supposed to be building. Stiles honestly doesn’t know, none of these challenges make any sense. He can see the camera’s  getting cheap shots of the way the bodies of the girls move around as they run up and down the beach in the tiny revealing bikinis they’re required to wear and he bites his cheek in annoyance.

He decides to look away, not wanting to join in on the freak show staring, and starts watching his male coworkers instead. It’s obvious that the looks of the candidates played an important part in the show’s selection process, because all of the guys standing next to him could be models if they wanted to. Like Isaac’s got that whole cheekbone thing going on and Jackson, as big of an ass as he is, looks like he belongs in Abercrombie campaigns.

Both aren’t really his type though, he prefers guys like Danny. Nice dark hair, broad shoulders, cute smile. Or guys like Derek, who seems to have sex written all over him. Stiles fight the instinct to lick his lips.

He had let the producers of the show know of his bisexuality as soon as they emailed him and they’d said it wouldn’t be a problem as long as he made sure to only focus on the girls while he was on the show. Which was more than Stiles had expected, to be honest.

The sound of Ryan’s loud “And those are our winners” forces Stiles to look up from his daydreaming and walk back with the others to where the girls who won the challenge, today being Braeden, Lydia and Erica, get to pick their dates.

He has to admit, he’d not expected Erica to pick him, but he can’t say he’s not excited. Out of all the girls in the house he thinks they are most alike, and Lydia was probably right; he should branch out a little, maybe get away from Malia.

\--

“So what’s the deal with you and Malia, Stiles?” Erica asks him, a playful curiousity visible in her eyes.

He groans, throwing his head backwards. “Why does everyone keep asking me that?”

Erica laughs, the sound sharp but pleasant in his ears, and she takes another lick from her cherry icecream. “What? You guys picked each other at the last two ceremonies, it draws attention alright.”

He huffs out a breath. They’re on their date, which had turned out to be a simple but really fun city tour through Kaneohe, the city they’re filming near. “I don’t know Erica, she’s a great girl but I’m not feeling her as much as I was before.”

“Yeah I never understood why you chose each other in the first place, you guys are nothing alike.”

“I don’t know, she was fun I guess.”

Erica shrugs, brows furrowing. “Nah, I don’t see it.”

Stiles can’t help himself, he bellows out a laugh, and Erica sends him a pleased smirk. “Come on Stiles, you know she’s not the girl for you. She’s can’t let loose.”

Stiles shrugs, cheeks turning red, and looks down at the street. He had really liked Malia, but no one around him seems to think they fit well together and now he doesn’t really know what he feels anymore. He knows why he liked her..he just doesn’t know if he still does.

Next to him Erica grabs a hold of his hand and raises her eyebrows as a challenge. Stiles grins, grabbing a hold of her hand back and pulling her closer, and his grin turns into a smirk when he sees Erica’s cheeks reddening at the action. Together they walk towards the end of the road, where there’s supposed to be a lookout point.

“But are you and her over then?”  Erica asks with a tilt of her head, the same smug curiosity visible as before.

“Is Malia all you wanted to talk about today or?” Stiles huffs out.

Erica laughs and hits him on the chest. “Shut up, I’ve been waiting for this a long time okay, I need to know you’re done wasting your time with her.”

He feels a smirk coming to his lips. “A long time huh?”

“Shut up and answer the question.”

He sighs and as he looks down at where their hands are linked together he realises he’s had a lot more fun on this date than he’s had with Malia in the house. This all felt more..real. He looks up into Erica’s slightly hopeful eyes. “Don’t think we ever really were something.”

“Good.”

“Good?” He laughs, for some reason not having expected that reaction.

“Yeah good,” she says, forcing them to a stop, “because I seriously think you might be my match Stiles and it’s easier to get to know you when fucking Poison Ivy isn’t constantly lurking around.”

Stiles can’t help the laugh he all but spits out. “Poison Ivy?”

“Yeah,” Erica says, a flirtatious gleam in her eyes, “Malia’s Poison Ivy, you’re Batman and I’m Catwoman.”

“Oh okay,” Stiles says, a feeling of warmth and happiness filling up his chest, he hasn’t just enjoyed the simplicity of flirting with a pretty girl like this in too long, “so you and I are meant to be together then?”

Erica moves closer towards him, her breasts now brushing against his chest. “In some versions we even marry.”

Stiles bites his lip, his gaze wandering from the naked skin revealed on her chest up to her eyes, which are staring at him with an intensity that makes him want to get closer and run away at the same time. He can’t believe this hot a girl asked him out on a date, and is flirting comic book style with him of all things.

As he looks at the way her blonde curls move slightly in the wind, at the warmth he finds in her maroon brown eyes, at the devious up-to-no-good-ness he finds in her grin. At how..simple everything is between them, he realizes Erica might be right. They could really be a perfect match.

Which is why when she moves even closer towards him, aligning her body with his, he doesn’t even think about closing the distance between their lips, he just does it.

\--

A thing Stiles has noticed is the cuddling. Cuddling is a big thing in this house. Crazy big.

Like now it’s a normal afternoon, they’d filmed the scripted parts of the day already and were now free to do their own thing, and Stiles is laying on the couch. Erica snuggled up to his left side, Lydia sprawled out next to him, her head in his lap. Isaac sits behind her, his arm resting against Stiles’. And somehow, it doesn’t feel weird.

“How was your date with Jackson, Lyds?”  Stiles asks his friend, playing with a strand of her hair between his fingers.

“It was good.” She hums, displaying it to have been soso, but Stiles can see the pleased smile she’s trying to hide.

He smiles, glad she had fun. Even if it was with Jackson. “Yeah? Truthbooth worthy good?”

She scoffs. “A hell of a lot more truthbooth worthy than Braeden and Danny.”

“Yeah Isaac.” Erica says from next to him, sending a glare Isaac’s way, who raises his hands as a sign of defeat.

“I know, I know, we messed up, we’re sorry.”

Stiles chuckles, shaking his head. They had kind of messed up. Braeden and Danny had gone into the truthbooth and, as expected apparently only by the couples out on dates, weren’t a perfect match. Another truthbooth wasted. When would they figure out this game?

Around him Isaac and Lydia start up a conversation but before he can join in Erica pulls on his shirt. As he looks down at her he can see a seriousness in her eyes. She swallows before speaking up. “Wanna get out of here?”

He nods, a heavy feeling in his gut. They leave to go upstairs and talk. They pass Derek by, whose gaze lowers to their locked hands, frowning slightly. Stiles swallows, his stomach heaving for some reason. Erica’s guiding him to one of the many seating area’s they’ve got hidden upstairs in the house.

Once they’re seated down Stiles suddenly notices that the seriousness he had seen in Erica’s expression is joined by nerves and an insecurity he’s never seen in the blonde before. He instinctively reaches out, placing his hand on her knee. “Hey Erica, are you okay? What’s up?”

She quickly nods and releases a deep breath before looking up at him. “Yeah no, it’s nothing big and I probably shouldn’t be bothering you with this but since we’ve been in this house it’s been really bothering me personally and I just..”

“Whatever it is, you’re not bothering me at all you nutter. You can tell me whatever you need to.”

She smiles and looks down, nerves ebbing away slightly. “Yeah still sorry, I just need to get it out of my head. It’s been bothering me so much and because everyone in here is an airhead except you..well.”

Stiles laughs, bumping his shoulder against hers and she sends him a shy smile as she sighs and switches her position on the couch. “It’s just, I didn’t used to be like this, you know?” Erica says, motioning to her body.

Stiles laughs. “What? Sexy?”

She hits him on the chest. Her playful smile ebbing away. “Well it was more than that I guess. I mean..did you know that I used to have epilepsy?”

Stiles can feel his eyebrows rise and shakes his head no in reply.

“Well I did,  I used to have these really bad attacks. I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t do anything. They were horrible.” He looks at Erica and her usual confident exterior seemed to have crumbled slightly, replaced by a warm, but fragile look in her eyes. A shy smile hinting at her lips.  “I mean..I had no control over my body, so I used to piss myself all the time. People ended up filming it, sending it to the whole school. To everyone who knew me.”

She sends him a bitter grin. “Bet you’d even be able to find it now if you know where to look.”

Even though Stiles is filled with a lot of anger and also some pity, he knows Erica wants to hear neither of those emotions spoken out right now. He swallows, taking her hand and pulling her against his chest. She quickly accepts his touch, releasing a small sigh as she snuggles into his chest.

He kisses the top of her head. “How’d they stop?”

“There was an extremely experimental treatment,” Erica starts, moving closer towards him, “something with injecting certain hormones in combination with shock treatment. My parents were so pissed off that I agreed to let them do it, after all the chance of me dying was bigger than me healing. But I guess I didn’t really care about that. Wouldn’t even have minded that much.”

Stiles bites his lip, recognizing that last thought all too well. Not minding whether you live or die is something he himself has felt for a long time. Not necessarily wanting to die, but not really caring if you wouldn’t wake up the next day you know? It all would feel the same, just numb. Normally he would probably share a small portion of that, knowing it would help Erica, would make her feel less alone. But there are camera’s all around them and Stiles is not up for having his private life and thoughts aired on national television. Or well mtv, but that’s basically the same thing.

So he just tightens his hold on Erica, pulling her close, and telling her she deserves so much more than what’s she gotten. And he means it. Erica’s honestly a way more genuine person than he had originally thought.

“And I know that, deep down you know? But being in here, seeing all these people be so..so fucking arrogant about everything. Painting me off like I’m one of them. It stings.”

“I get that. Some people in here indeed are just so full of themselves.” He grabs her hand, shrugging. “You’re not though Erica, you’re beautiful and confident and genuine. No one would ever see you on the same level as the others in here. Your confidence is deserved.”

She smiles and ducks her head before looking up at him, her eyes filled with an emotion he can’t quite read. “You’re really a great person you know Stiles.”

He smiles. “Got nothing on you catwoman.”

\--

Everyone’s silent as they return from the match up ceremony. One beam. They’d gotten one fucking beam. How was that even possible? He knows the reason for everyone’s silence is the fact that everyone liked the person they were sitting with, thought they could really have a perfect match, but apparently only one of them was.

Stiles lets himself fall on the couches they have standing out on the balcony, hiding his face in his hands. His lap is still warm from where Erica had sat draped over it for the entire ceremony, only to find out they’re probably not a match. The chance that they are that beam is..well one in eight, but Stiles doesn’t want to give himself that sparkle of hope. He knows that would just blow up in his face. And he really had genuinely liked the girl a lot.

He sighs and takes out his personal theory notebook, flipping the pages to week three.

As he’s filling in the table he’d made beforehand, writing down who sat next to who today, he feels someone sitting down next to him on the couch. He doesn’t need to look up to know it’s Derek, for some reason he’s developed a radar towards the other guy.

Derek hands him a beer, which he takes with a  grateful smile. Today sucked. They sit in silence for a while, and Stiles can basically hear Derek wondering if he should ask, before he finally does.

“So what’s that?”

Stiles looks up at Derek and raises the notebook in his right hand. “It’s how I keep track of everything, so I can remember who sat together when and cross people out.”

At Derek’s confused frown, he continues. “When we get a confirmed perfect match, I’ll be able to see when they sat together and when I then compare that with the number of beams we got that ceremony I might figure out who’s a match and who’s not.”

Derek looks, well, impressed. Stiles feels a blush reach his cheek.

Derek frowns. “Do the producers know? Don’t think they would be happy with you figuring out the system.”

Stiles huffs out a laugh. “Nah, I’m not planning on telling them anytime soon.”

“It’s okay,” Derek says, small grin on his lips, “I’ll keep your secret.”

“Thanks.” Stiles grins as well. “You think you and Malia are that one beam?”

Derek scoffs, huffing out a breath. “I hope not. The girl’s nice and all, but.”

Stiles laughs, thinking about how Malia had been ignoring him since Erica and moves backwards on the couch, turning slightly towards Derek. “I feel you, she’s great but.. intense.”

“I don’t know it feels like she’s my cousin or something.”

Stiles laughs, almost spitting out the sip of beer that’s currently rotating inside his mouth. “Okay, so maybe it didn’t feel like that for me, but yeah I get you.”

Derek sends him a grin and Stiles smiles at the genuinity he finds in it. They finish their beers in silence, but not an uncomfortable one.

\--

Stiles wakes up, yawning loudly as he kicks the bedsheets of off him.  It’s still early, the sunlight barely peeking through the curtains. Stiles sits up, scratching the back of his head and sees all of his roommates are still asleep, hidden under their covers. He sees Lydia’s strawberry blonde hair peeking out next to Jackson.  He stands up, rolling his eyes at the sight, and quietly makes his way downstairs for a quick breakfast.

Paige sits at the kitchen counter when he arrives, her wavy brown hair tied up in a messy ponytail. She sends a kind smile his way as she takes a sip of her steaming cup of coffee. “Morning.”

“Morning Paige.”

Stiles likes Paige, she’s one of the calmer people in the house but always makes for a good time. Yet, as he sees her sitting there he realizes they’ve never really..talked in the three weeks they’ve been here.

He grabs a curtain of eggs out of the fridge, holding them up for her to see as he speaks up. “Wanna help me cook breakfast for everyone?”

She looks up in surprise at the suggestion but a smile quickly forms on her face as she nods. “Sure, but let me finish my coffee first. I’m a mess without it.”

Stiles laughs, pouring himself a quick cup of tea - coffee and ADHD aren’t always the best of friends-, and sits down next to her. They talk for a little bit, Stiles mostly taking his time studying her. Weird that he’s never done that before. Paige is cute. She has a button nose for god’s sake and the mole underneath her right eye makes him smile everytime he sees it.

Cooking with Paige is fun. The girl’s clumsy, almost as much as him, and manages to spill milk all over the counter. They laugh, cleaning it up before continuing boiling and frying the eggs. They talk about all sorts of shit, their families and lives back home, Paige’s passion for music, who they like best in the house and how awful it is to have to pretend to be excited about everything.

At the end of it Stiles can honestly say he’s made a new friend.

\---

Stiles wakes up outside, the cushions of the sunbed feeling hot to the touch. He frowns when he feels the sun burning on his skin and open his eyes to see his skin has coloured red. He sighs, touching it to hiss when it does kind of hurt.  Fuck he knew the sun would be kind of intense today, but he thought he could be outside for thirty fucking minutes without burning up.  Next to him Erica laughs, causing Lydia to look up from her magazine.

The redhead shakes her head, tongue clucking in disapproval. “I told you to use sunscreen Stiles, you know you’re pale.”

“Fuck you guys for letting me fall asleep then.”

Erica’s still laughing, leaning over to grab his hand and kiss it. “Poor little thing. Your own fault though.”

Paige, who’s sitting on the edge of the pool in front of them, turns around and sends him a sweet smile. Though her amusement at his situation is clearly visible. “I’ve got some after sun inside, want me to go get it for you?”

“Ah Paige, my one true savior. At least I can always count on you.”

She laughs, shaking her head, before standing up and walking towards the door. “Yeah yeah Stiles, the things I do for you.”

He sends her a smile, making a mental note to always be good to Paige, before turning back towards Erica. She’s looking at him, eyebrows raised smugly. He grins, looking at her. “What?”

“Nothing, nothing.” Her grin turns into a small smile when she looks into his eyes. “You know Stiles, I’m really glad we’re still good even after the match up.”

Stiles smiles. “Of course, I mean yeah we probably aren’t a match-”

“Still a chance Stiles.” Lydia pipes in. “Don’t miscalculate.”

“Okay yeah,” Stiles continues, rolling his eyes, “the chance we are a match is small but that doesn’t mean I suddenly stopped liking you.”

Erica smiles, squeezing his hand. “I’m glad for that. Haven’t stopped liking you either batman.”

Isaac falls down on the sunbed next to Erica, water still dripping on his chest from his earlier swim in the pool. “Glad for what?”

“For you gracing us with your presence Lahey.”

Isaac rolls his eyes at Stiles and Erica snickers. “But tell us Lahey, how’s the love life going?”

Isaac just turns red, sighing. “Do we have to talk about this?”

“Yes.” Lydia says from the other side, interest peaked, and shoves Stiles slightly out of the way on his sunbed. “Move over Stiles, I want to hear all of this.”

“Guys..there really isn’t a lot to tell.”

“No one you like?” Lydia questions.

“I mean..yeah of course but nothing’s happening.”

“Why not?” Erica jumps in.

Stiles laughs as the sight of the two girls completely grilling Isaac. He does feel sorry for the guy. “Girls let’s leave him..if he doesn’t want to share he doesn't have to.”

“Yes he does,” Lydia grins, “who is it Isaac?”

Isaac sighs. “I hate you guys..but I mean it’s not really someone specific. Allison’s hot, Braeden too. Cora as well actually. And I guess Paige and Malia too.”

“So everyone except me and Erica?”

Stiles laughs, he is really glad he’s not in Isaac’s position right now. Especially when he sees Erica’s eyes sparkling with an idea, a dangerous looking smirk at her lips. “Oeh Isaac, can we set you up? Pretty please?”

Even more glad not to be in Isaac’s position.

“Erica no..” The other guy tries to argue.

“Erica yes.” Lydia chimes in.

Then Paige walks back out and throws the orange container of after sun into Stiles’ lap. “Here you go Stiles.” She says with a sweet smile before getting back into the water of the pool, joining Boyd and Kira in their swim.

“And I know exactly with who.” Erica says to Isaac, who only groans and lets his head fall backwards on the sunbed pillow.

\--

Stiles was, well, he wasn’t drunk, but he wasn’t far from being drunk either.

They’d been partying and drinking all night and Stiles might have let himself go a little too much. God, sometimes he forgot this was all going to be on tv. God, his dad was going to see all of this. But fuck dad, he’s twentyfuckingtwo he can do whatever he wants. Even on national television.

Next to him Aiden shouts out something about getting fucked up, clearly only to get himself some screentime, Jackson chiming in from behind him. Stiles rolls his eyes, suddenly annoyed with the people around him. He pouts, looking around the room, where did all the fun people go? Where’d Scott go?

Out of the corner of his eye he can see Malia entering the room and that was definitely his cue to leave. She hadn’t taken the Erica situation too well, sending him the coldest look he’d ever seen, which Erica had then immediately used to confirm her Poison Ivy theory.

Whistling happily, Stiles skips up the stairs where he can hear loud and bright laughter coming from the room next door. He steps in and is immediately pulled onto the floor and forced to join the ongoing game of spin the bottle. Which he isn’t exactly complaining about. Stiles fucking loves spin the bottle, which might sound super pathetic and might be a little pathetic but screw that. He gets to kiss people and watch people kiss, what’s not to love? Especially in this house full of beautiful people.

In front of him Lydia’s refilling everyone’s glass while Kira nervously spins the bottle. Stiles likes Kira, he suddenly realizes. She’s cute and bubbly and..really not someone he would ever see kissing Boyd but yeah that’s happening. Next to him Isaac cheers and Stiles can’t help but laugh. Boyd just shakes his head at them, but Stiles can see he’s amused.

Boyd then kisses Cora, Cora kisses Lydia (which..wet dream material), Lydia kisses Isaac and after that Stiles can’t keep track anymore. He does cheer for every kiss though, because the combinations never fail to make him laugh. Then suddenly the bottle’s pointing to him and Lydia’s pretending to hate it on the other end. Stiles can’t help his drunk self, he actually victory pumps as Lydia moves his way. She sends him a roll of her eyes but he can see the laughter sparkling in them.

“Consider this the only kiss you’ll ever get from me, Stilinski.” She says once she’s reached him and Stiles laughs before their lips connect in a sweet peck, with the slightest hint of tongue..on his side.

Lydia laughs against his lips before hitting him on the chest and moving backwards to slouch against Boyd. Stiles grins, before realizing he gets to spin the bottle now. Excited he moves forwards and turns the bottle to see it landing, after a surprisingly short round, on Danny. The crowd around them gasps and starts cheering. Danny just looks at him with a mixture of nerves and smugness. A challenge in his eyes.

Stiles licks his lip as he moves forward, grabbing a hold of Danny’s neck and smashing their lips together. Around them people cheer but Stiles doesn’t care because this time the hint of tongue isn’t coming from him. And fuck if you think Stiles would let go on his probably last chance to kiss one of the hottest guys in the house you’re very mistaken.

Stiles opens his mouth, allowing Danny to dart inside and their tongues collide in a sloppy, drunken rhythm. But a very nice sloppy drunken rhythm. Their tongues glide together smoothly and Stiles can feel Danny’s hand moving into his hair. Stiles groans and the vibration sends a shudder through their kiss, which causes for Danny to grip on harder onto his hair. Their kiss deepens just as a pillow gets thrown their way. Stiles breaks the kiss then, laughing loudly at the ‘get a room you two’ that gets shouted their way. In front of him Danny’s laughing as well, though his cheeks do redden. It’s fucking adorable.

\--

“Stilinski!” Cora comes barging into the upstairs living room where he’s watching a movie with Scott, Allison, Boyd, Braeden and Paige.  Scott had been all excited planning this movie date, inviting Allison before he’d even invited Stiles. It was cute though, he’d even made her nachos as she’d told him she liked those. He was making a real effort, Stiles hopes Allison will see that too.

He looks up to see Cora standing in the doorway, knife in her hand. “Mccall told me you can cook, come downstairs, you’re helping.”

Scott sends him an apologetic smile but Stiles doesn’t really mind all that much, the movie wasn’t that great anyway. He jumps up from the couch and follows the brunette downstairs. Once they reach the kitchen Stiles notices Derek’s there as well, stirring in one of the pans. Danny sits at the counter with his laptop and looks up at Stiles with a smirk, raising his eyebrows suggestively before laughing. Stiles grins.

“Stilinski’s helping.” Cora says as they walks behind the counter. Derek looks up from what he’s doing and nods his way.

“Cooking with the Hales huh?”

Cora grins. “Yeah, we’re making our dad’s recipe for pasta with prawns.”

“But Cora was too lazy to do shit so she went to ask for help.” Derek added, sending him a grin.

Cora pouts. “It’s so much work for this many people.”

“Our family’s big too Cora, stop the excuses.”

“Why are you hating on me? Danny’s doing fuck all either.”

Danny looks up from his laptop. “Tech guy, not a cook guy.”

Stiles laughs. “It’s okay, I don’t mind helping. What can I do?”

Cora reaches over to the counter, grabs three zucchinis and throws them against his chest. “Cut those up.”

Stiles smiles and obliges, grabbing a knife and starting his work. Cora’s humming a song next to him while she cuts up some red peppers and Stiles joins in. “You guys got that big a family then huh?”

Cora looks up at him, smiling fondly. “Yeah, we live in this big house in the woods, all together. It’s fun. Like we have our older sister Laura who’s already married to her husband Simon but they still live with us, with our baby nephew as well.”

His eyebrows rise in surprise. “She has a kid already? How old is she?”

“Just turned thirty, but she’s in denial of that.”  Cora grins. Derek huffs out a laugh in the background.

“That’s so cool though, you’re an aunt man.” He can see Derek smiling at his words across from him. Derek’s an uncle as well. Uncle Derek, does sound adorable. Sends a smile to Stiles’ lips.

“I know.” Cora’s smile is radiant. “Love the little guy to bits. But okay yeah, then we got our sister that’s between us, Kiara, who’s a bartender. Then us and our parents of course.”

Derek deadpans their way when Cora doesn’t immediately continue. “Are you seriously forgetting Peter?”

“No of course not you daft,” Cora throws a piece of pepper towards him, “I wasn’t done yet. Go back to your sauce business.”

Stiles can’t help but laugh. Sauce business. Cora faces him again. “Sorry for the rude interruption Stiles. Our uncle Peter also lives with us, together with his son Lucas, who’s also our age.”

Stiles smiles. “Quite a full house man, seems fun. Busy too, but fun”

Derek turns around, smiling in a very cute way.  “The busy part is the best. Everyone’s always on your case and everyone has to know everything but you know..you’re always together. It’s good.”

Stiles smiles, facing the floor. It does sound pretty amazing. How happy the two of them get talking about their family, they must really all be close. Him and his dad are close too, but that’s because they’re all the other has left. They kind of have to be close. Being so close with such a big family..that really is something amazing.

Danny starts talking about his family then, that also turned out to be quite big. Mostly nieces and nephews though and not all in the same house, but still big. Stiles smiles at the stories and can’t help but think of his dad. Going on the show meant that his dad would be alone for a while and even though he was by himself when Stiles was in college as well, Stiles knows he doesn’t like it. Maybe he’ll ask if he’s allowed to call his dad, because after today he suddenly misses him.

\--

Stiles is honestly going insane. He’s running over the beach, feet almost slipping in the sand, as he runs to try and catch up the other guys. They have to find a girls name in a pile of sand or something and have to run with the buckets of sand to make the pile smaller and jesus fuck it’s such bullshit it makes his head hurt. And of course he’s last, since his fucking fellow contestants are apparently all professional athletes. He runs past where the girls are watching them and Lydia is shaking her head at him, pretending to be ashamed. He flips her off but does grin.

“Come on Isaac!” He hears Erica scream. He smiles to himself, yeah today the girls were making sure Isaac would win the challenge so they could have him go on a date. Lydia had even bribed Jackson into holding back. Stiles doesn’t want to know what she did to achieve that.

Suddenly Stiles feels himself being flung backwards and he screams as he falls down into the sand. Bewildered he looks up at where Derek is standing in front of him, hiding a small grin. Stiles feels a blush reach his cheeks as Derek offers him a hand. He does grab it and Derek pulls him up, not hiding his amusement anymore. His hazel eyes bore into Stiles’ and fuck Stiles had forgotten how beautiful they were.  

“Maybe watch where you’re going Stiles.” Derek mutters before winking at him and running on.

Stiles stands slightly taken aback for a moment, before realizing he should probably continue running as well. Umh yes, back to the sand pile. Derek’s wink spooks through his head as he attempts to appear like he cares about the challenge for the camera’s sake. To no one’s surprise he doesn’t win, though Isaac does. Much to Erica’s and Lydia’s glee.

Stiles is still stuck thinking about the moment with Derek. Like what was that wink? A flirt? Can’t be right? Finstock calls them all to stand on a line for a ‘pretty shot on the beach’ and asks the girls to jump up and down in happiness again. Stiles bites his cheek in annoyance at this show’s blatant sexism, but oh well.

Lydia comes up next to him and puts her dark designer sunglasses up in her hair, which she braided today. It looks good. “Isaac going on a date is good for strategy as well, we have no further info on him.”

“Yeah, who did he sit with again at the ceremonies?”

Lydia shrugs. “Randoms I think, Kira one time, Braeden the other.”

“Paige would be good too, we have nothing on her as well.”

Lydia nods in agreement, eyes filled with determination. “We haven’t been focused lately Stiles. Need to get back on track.”

Stiles huffs out a laugh. “Back to forcing our way into people’s choices.”

To their surprise, Isaac didn’t pick Paige like they’d planned. Lydia was not pleased. With slightly red cheeks he revealed he had dug Allison’s name out of the sand instead. He wanted to prove he was an independent man who didn’t need no women to decide for him. Stiles just grinned, but his smile quickly died when he saw the storm in Scott’s eyes next to him. Oh fuck, he forgot how jealous Scott can get,  this was just asking for trouble.

\--

House party time. Again. Stiles likes it though, that they have so many parties. He loves parties, loves getting drunk, losing his usual shame and liking everyone a lot more. Not that he doesn’t usually like anyone, but it helps. He’s sliding through the hallway, going outside to where a group sits smoking. Inside wasn’t much fun, mostly people feeling each other up and therefore making Stiles want to throw up.

“Stiles!” Danny yells when he sees him coming and wraps a friendly arm around him.

Stiles laughs and leans into the embrace. “Danny boy!”

He plops down onto the lounge set and Danny offers him one of his cigarettes. He shakes his head no. After his mom died he did smoke for a while, to kind of cope with everything, be rebellious and stuff, but then he realised his mom would actually hate that. Never touched one since. Doesn’t mind other people doing it around him though, each to their own. He looks up to the sky, which has been marked with stars at this time of night. Funny how they’re in Hawaii now but the stars do look similar to home. He looks back down to see Aiden and Cora laughing across from him.

“Aiden you can’t.”

“Can’t do what?” Stiles pipes in, wanting to be part of the laughter.

Cora grins at him, a mocking look in her eyes. “He wants to try and get with Lydia.”

Stiles huffs out a laugh. “Really?”

Aiden looks at him and shrugs. “She’s one of the best girls in the house.”

“She’s great yeah. She’s also kind of getting with Jackson.”

“Only kind of.” Danny snickers sarcastically, rolling his eyes, “those two have been in each other’s bed every night for the last two weeks.”

Cora laughs at Aiden’s frown, patting him on the back. “But sure you have a chance.”

Stiles can’t help but laugh as well. He shifts in his seat before looking at Aiden is somewhat seriousness. “I mean if you’d really want to, you would have to hugely impress her.”

Aiden looks at him with a sudden realization. “Yeah, you’re friends with her right? Can’t you maybe..you know-”

“Put in a good word?” Stiles asks, somehow unable to wipe the grin off his lips. “I mean I could..I personally don’t think Jackson’s her match anyway, but she has got him in her head. Difficult to get out.”

Aiden sighs dramatically, letting himself fall back on the couch. “No chance then?”

“Not saying that,” he shrugs “she does like attention so if you give her the right attention and impress her, you never know.”

“Ayy Aiden look at that.” Cora says joyfully, slapping him on the back. “Maybe you can finally get a girl.”

Stiles laughs, hard, and Aiden rolls his eyes, clearly slightly bothered but amused as well. “Shut up Hale.”

“No but thanks Stilinski,” Aiden turns to him, “maybe still put it a good word?”

Stiles grins. “I can try.”

Aiden sends him a pleased smile and Stiles realizes maybe Aiden isn’t so bad after all. Just because he hangs around with Jackson doesn’t have to mean he’s an exact clone. He looks up to see Derek’s familiar form walking towards them, a half empty bottle of beer in his hand and a frown on his face. Stiles swallows. Derek sits down next to Cora, frown still very present.

“Really Cora? Smoking again?”

Cora looks busted for half a second before annoyance takes over her expression. “Fuck off Derek, I can do what I want.”

“Not saying you can’t, just saying mom won’t like it.”

“Well mom isn’t here.”

Stiles frowns, for the first time really thinking about the fact they’re siblings. He’d known of course, everyone knew, but he’s now just noticing how much they really are alike. Same dark hair, grumpy expression, same intimidating vibe going on, both fucking beautiful. Derek looks at him and he quickly averts his eyes, not wanting the other man to think he was staring. He only was for a little bit anyway.

Derek shuts up after that, grabbing his sister’s pack and taking a cigarette himself.

“See, you are such a hypocrite!” Cora shakes her head, eyebrows sharp.

“Like you said, mom isn’t here. And you are her baby anyway.”

“Please,” Cora huffs, “everyone knows you’re mom’s precious child.”

Stiles huffs out a laugh and can hear Danny do the same. For some reason he can totally imagine Derek being the baby in the family. Derek looks at him, again that intense stare he has, and Stiles has to swallow in order to keep his stomach from tightening.

Then Danny asks what he’d just been thinking. “How come you two both got on the show anyway?”

Cora grins. “Well, I wanted to be on the show kind of but didn’t really want to bother with doing the application video and stuff. So our sister Laura said she’d do it for me and then she made one for Derek as well without him knowing.” Derek looks pained at that fact. “And yeah we both got selected.”

“So you didn’t really want to be here?” Stiles asks Derek.

Cora laughs. “Yeah but I made him, huh big brother of mine.”

Derek rolls his eyes but nods. “Once my sisters get a plan into their head it for some reason always happens.”

Stiles huffs out a laugh.

“Still kind of weird, that you two know each other from before.” Aiden adds.

“You and Mccall knew each other as well right?” Danny asks, turning to him.

Stiles nods. “Well yeah, we kind of made our video when we were drunk as a joke but well here we are.”

Danny smiles as he puts out his cigarette. “Typical though.”

“You done?” Cora stands up, eyebrows raised in question, before grabbing Danny’s hand. “We’re going dancing, bye losers.”

Aiden grins, giving Stiles and Derek a quick apologetic hand gesture before following them inside. Stiles silently curses, he did not want to be alone with Derek. The guy does something to him, with those fucking eyes. When he looks up Derek is indeed looking at him and Stiles feels small underneath his stare. He does smile at the other man, not wanting Derek to know he’s slightly freaking out.

Derek shifts on his chair. “You any further with figuring it all out?”

Stiles is confused for a second before realizing Derek was referring to his strategy notebook. “Oh yeah, no not really. I mean I only have the three truthboots so far and since yesterday’s was negative again I can’t really see a lot yet.”

“Shame.” Derek says. “I kind of expected yesterday’s to be positive, Kira and Boyd I could have really seen working.”

Stiles tilts his head, considering it. “Now you say that yeah, me too. Both calmer but fun people.”

Derek nods.

“They kissed at spin the bottle too.”

“He told me yeah. Also said how you and Danny got it on.”

Stiles can feel the blush reaching his cheeks, oh god why was this a topic of discussion. “Umh yeah.”

Derek laughs. Beautiful sound. “It’s okay Stiles, I swing both ways too.”

Stiles looks at him and Derek winks. He can feel his cheeks becoming even more red. Fucking hell, he did not need to know that. Fucking wink as well. It’s as if Derek knows what he does to Stiles. He probably does thinking about it..Stiles isn’t exactly good at being subtle. He looks up to see Derek looking at him, a friendly grin at his lips. Okay, maybe it’s not all that bad. Stiles smiles back. He can see Derek opening his mouth to say something when Scott comes running towards them.

“Stiles! Here you are! I’m so fucking mad!”

With that Scott drops next to him on the couch and Stiles can see Derek biting his tongue before standing up. He gives Stiles a small smile before walking towards the house, clearly deciding to give him and Scott some privacy. Stiles doesn’t know whether to be glad Scott interrupted or disappointed. He sighs before putting on a happy mood and turning towards his best friend.

“Why’s that Scotty?”

“Fucking Allison and Isaac that’s why. He’s been all over her the entire night. Ever since their date she’s had no eye for me anymore! And I was finally doing good Stiles! I made her laugh and made breakfast for her. I thought she really started liking me.”

Stiles can’t help the fond smile from coming on his face. Scott had always been a one girl type of guy. “Well Scott, I mean we are in a dating show. It makes sense she’d explore the guy who took her on a date for a while.”

“But she’s my perfect match.”

He holds back a laugh. “Well you don’t know that for sure buddy, it’s actually quite clever to kind of look into more than one person.”

“But I don’t want to look into anyone else. I just want Allison.”

Stiles is full on smiling now, no hiding it anymore. Cutie Scott. “I know buddy I know. Maybe she’ll turn around, but I would try to maybe also look at someone else. Is there no one else you like?”

Scott looks up into the sky as if he’s considering this for the very first time. Knowing him he probably is. He’s quiet for a while, eyebrows twisting as he thinks it through, before speaking up unsurely. “I mean..Kira’s kinda cute.”

Stiles grins. “She is definitely kind of cute.”

“Maybe I can make Allison jealous as well! Great idea Stiles! I’m gonna talk to her right now.”

And like that happy drunk puppy Scott leaves him again, darting inside on his mission to find Kira. Stiles just shakes his head, fond smile at his lips. He loves Scott but god the boy does think so not practical sometimes. This show is a game, not a way to find your soulmate. He wishes more people would realize that.

\--

He wakes up to a still sleeping Erica on his chest, her breathing tickling on his skin. He goes into a slight shock, confused as to what happened last night, but then remembers with relief that she just crawled into bed with him last night when they were both too drunk to do anything else. Not that he’d not want to have sex with her, because damn, but because he does not want to have sex on tv. And because even though he likes her a lot, lately they’ve kind of shifted towards friends as well. But not like not more than friends anymore. It’s all confusing to be honest.

He brushes through her curls when he hears her making little cute wake-up sounds. “Hey catwoman.”

She raises her head to look at him, sleep still present in her eyes. “Morning.” She smiles at him.

She rolls over then, landing next to him on her back. “God my head hurts.”

He bellows out a laugh. “Mine too man, never trusting you to make my drinks again.”

“They weren’t that bad, whiny lightweight.”

“Whiny? Fuck off Erica.”

She laughs, moving slightly so she faces him. Her playful look joined by a seriousness. “You still want to do the matchup ceremony together today?”

“Yeah of course. Still my number one babe.”

She fake gasps. “I’m above Lydia?”

He laughs, hitting her on the chest, before looking at her in seriousness. “In some ways.”

“Not even all the ways? Stilinski I’m offended.”

He rolls her eyes and grabs her hand, before giving her a kiss on the forehead. “In the right ways.”

She smiles at that, sweet and shyly. Stiles likes it on her, likes that she this side next to the sexually confident could-kick-your-ass side. But he also feels kind of bad, because even though he does still like the girl a lot he has been mentally distancing him from her. Like he said lately they’ve been feeling more like friends, but still not completely away from the more than friends.

And to be honest he does want to keep all his options open and god that makes him sound like a jackass but he does.  He doesn’t want to get too associated with anyone. She might not be his perfect match, probably not even, and he needs the money this show will get him.

The ceremony went sort of better this time. They actually had two beams this time. Double of last time. Progress Stiles supposes. Shit progress, but progress nonetheless.  Everyone was still bummed out though. You keep on thinking you might have found this person only to be told that just two of you truly have. Does suck.

\--

“Honestly Lydia, I’m confused.” Stiles starts, sipping from the gin and tonic he’d made for them. Lydia gives him a questioning look from across the table, shifting in her chair. They’re sitting on one of the terrace sets outside, kind of hidden away from the pool and the others, a small but big enough parasol next to them to cover Stiles’ still sensitive skin.

“Confused about what?”

“Well just everything. I don’t really know what to do with Erica anymore and..and I think Derek flirted with me.”

Lydia eyes widen at that, clearly intrigued, and Stiles smiles at finally being able to somewhat impress her. “Wait Derek what?”

“Yeah well I don’t know. He’s been looking at me a lot lately and well I don’t know it feels different.”

And there goes the impressed look, replaced by an exasperated one. “He’s looking at you?”

“You know what I mean Lydia, like flirty looking. Winking as well. And the other day he told me he was bisexual too!”

“Okay..” Lydia still looks unimpressed as she takes a sip through her bright pink straw, “and you think the fact he shared his sexuality with you means he’s into you.”

“Why else mention it? It was flirty okay!”

“If you say so Stiles, but I wouldn’t read into it. You’re supposed to only like girls anyway remember?”

Right. Stupid contract. The producers already hadn’t been too happy with his kiss with Danny but Finstock had decided it would make for a fun drunken party shot so they didn’t get too mad. “Yeah I know.”

Lydia flicks her hair, pleased he admitted so. “But tell me, what’s the deal with Erica now then?”

Stiles sighs, dropping his shoulders. He doesn’t really know the deal himself. “It’s weird Lyds, I genuinely really like the girl. She’s funny, sweet, kind, confident and I mean..hot as hell and we get along so well, but the flirting we had in the beginning is kind of gone. She feels more like a friend now, but still like more than that as well.”

Lydia hums in what seems like understanding. “Are you not attracted to her anymore?”

“No, no, that’s not it. Look at her, the girl’s fucking beautiful. I..I just don’t know.”

“Well maybe it’s because you want someone else.”

Stiles feels his face morph into a frown. “Like who?”

“Derek.” Lydia says smugly, amusement visible in her eyes.

Stiles sighs, sending a glare her way. “I do not like Derek.”

“But you’ve been thinking about him lately,” she offers with a shrug, “and please Stiles as if you would not jump straight on that cock.”

He spits out the sip of gin he’d had in his mouth at that, a mixture of shock and laughter taking over. Fucking hell. Lydia smirks across from him. “You would Stiles, no denying.”

“Like you’ve been jumping on that Whittemore cock?” He asks, grin at his lips, regaining his posture.

The smirk falls from Lydia’s lips as she rolls her eyes, a bit of genuine annoyance visible. Stiles scoffs. “What? We can talk about my awkward flirting but not about yours?”

“Mine isn’t awkward.” Lydia huffs, raising the cocktail glass to her lips, purposely looking away. “And you were the one that wanted to talk because you were confused. Well I’m not.”

“Come on Lydia, just tell me if things are still good.”

She sighs, placing the glass back down on the table. “Things are still okay, getting a tad boring though.”

Stiles huffs out a laugh. Typical Lydia. “What? No fun anymore?”

“Just predictable that’s all. Fun conversations, like his confidence, great sex, but repetitive.”

“Well if you want to move on, I know someone who’s waiting eagerly.”

The redhead’s eyebrows rise. “Do tell Stilinski.”

“A certain Aiden expressed interest.”

“Aiden? Really?” Her eyebrows twist in consideration, corners of her lips rising slightly. “Might do.”

Stiles shakes his head. “God, you are a menace.”

“Your favourite menace though.”

Stiles rolls his eyes, taking another sip from his drink, realizing that even though he started this conversation to try and become less confused he thinks he became it even more.

\--

Stiles couldn’t believe it when he heard it. The challenge is actually not based around physical abilities this week. It’s about remembering. Something he can actually do. The guys need to match several quotes, hobbies and other random facts to each and every one of the girls. So if you haven’t been social and been talking to everyone, you’re pretty fucked.

So Scott was very fucked, with only knowing small things about Allison and Kira and having to guess everything else. Scott had really been trying with Kira though. They’ve been spending more time together and if the shy smiles Kira’s been having on her face all the time are any indication things are going well. Stiles likes that. He thinks that Scott needs to see that Kira might be the better girl for him. At least she’s given him the attention he deserves. Nothing against Allison of course, she’s a babe, but he feels Kira might be fit Scott better.

His hand grabs onto the new engraved wooden plank, back in the challenge. Stiles was actually doing good. This is something he knows. He likes getting to know people, likes diving into their passions and personal life, so this challenge was pretty much made for him. He looks at the new plank, the hobby shooting engraved into it, and he frowns. Fuck he doesn’t know who likes to shoot.

He lets his eyes glide over the girl's pictures on his board, halting at Cora. Could it be her? Maybe. Then his eyes brush over Braeden’s picture, in which she’s wearing a dark leather jacket and in which her eyes are looking down on him with a look that can kill. A look that can shoot. Yeah it’s her. He hangs the plank underneath his picture before running back to his bucket to get the next one.

‘Owns more lingerie than clothes’. A grin comes to his lips, yeah that’s his Erica. As he runs up to her picture he thinks about the way she’d grabbed his hand on the way here, a slightly accepting but somehow also daring look in her eyes. It made his stomach tighten. He supposes he does still like her. But it just feels different than before. He doesn’t know what changed but something did.

He runs back and forth, placing the last plank underneath Malia’s picture, when time runs out. Their host Ryan starts counting up the correct answers and announces their three winners in that way too excited voice of his.

He did it. He actually did it. He won a challenge. The smile on his face feels like it’ll split his cheeks in half.  Scott seems even more excited, as he’s jumping right onto his back. Stiles laughs and wraps his arms around his best friend. Fucking hell, he did it. Lydia is looking at him with an impressed gleam in her eyes from across the yard and she twists her head smiling. His gaze shifts to Erica, whose bright smile matches his own and he walks towards her, grabbing her hand and pulling her towards him. He looks into her eyes and puts on a tough guy voice. “Won for you babe.”

She laughs, rolling her eyes at him, but a soft gleam marks her eyes. “My hero.”

A smile comes to his lips and for a second everything feels right between them.

\--

“Guys, I want some more in house excitement.” Finstock’s  pacing through their kitchen, the sweat already glistening on his hairy arms, “you’re all way too friendly with each other. We need a spectacle. We need a fight.”

Stiles rolls his eyes at how Jackson immediately goes to stand up straighter at hearing the word fight.

“And what better way to start a fight than with some jealousy?” Finstock continues. Stiles feels his eyebrows raise, that’s actually not a bad idea, “Let’s see who do we have that are kind of stable? Lydia and Jackson maybe, or Allison and Isaac. Well Stilinski and Erica have got their thing going on as well but with Stilinski that would not be much of a fight.”

Stiles wants to sigh but honestly he isn’t even bothered anymore. The ‘not the manliest man’ position is one he will take with pride. He did see Derek snickering at the other end of the room at Finstock’s comment, which for some reason does annoy him.  

“So who do we think will work?” Finstock asks the room. “Or we could also go with Boyd being angry about the new thing between Scott and Kira?”

“There’s a thing between Scott and Kira?” Erica asks, whispering.

Stiles laughs, nodding her way.

“I’m not really known for being violent.” Boyd stands in the corner, arms folded over each other, muscles clearly visible from underneath his shirt. Stiles swallows and is glad the guy isn’t know for being violent.

Finstock nods, swallowing at the assertiveness in Boyd’s voice. “Jackson it is then.”

The next day the staged fight takes place and Stiles has to say it was pulled of very well. Jackson walked in on Lydia and Aiden making out and Stiles was kind of amazed by how clever that set-up was. It plays right into Lydia’s genuinely conflicted emotions as she had been growing closer with Aiden the last few days and Stiles could see Jackson wasn’t just acting in his anger. Stiles thinks the guy might actually have been hurt. Finstock clearly was a smarter man than Stiles had originally thought.

\--

“So you guys are definitely going into the truthbooth.” Lydia says as she somehow manages to take a bite of the gigantic hamburgers Boyd had made for them and make it look graceful.

Isaac makes an agreeing noise from behind his burger, which looks a whole lot less graceful but somehow charming nonetheless.

Erica sends him a questioning look and shrugs towards the others. “We’ll see what happens.”

“No, we won’t,” Lydia starts, eyebrows raised, “I’m going to make sure you guys go in. We’ll get lots of information that way. If you are a match, we’ll know seven couples that aren’t because of that one beam.”

Stiles can see Erica rolling her eyes at Lydia but she clearly knows there’s no going against her as she doesn’t speak up. Lydia hums triumphantly.

“I’ll vote for you guys.” Paige then says from next to him, smiling sweetly. “We might actually have our first perfect match.”

Their first perfect match. A wry smile comes to his lips. He knows Paige meant it in a good way, but somehow it just makes him feel like crap. Things have just been kind of confusing between him and Erica lately. He honestly doesn’t know what he thinks of her anymore. What she thinks of him anymore. He doesn’t know what them being a perfect match would do for them. It might make things better, or make things kind of awkward. They would have to leave the house and go to the honeymoon suite with just the two of them. He doesn’t know if that’s what he wants.

Erica looks at him from across the table and smiles at him. There’s an uncertainty in her eyes but there’s also a look of trust. A look that says ‘everything will be fine’. He smiles as he realizes that she’s right, they’ll still be okay. Perfect match or not, they’ll be okay.

\--

It’s the day before date day. He’s sitting on the edge of the pool, letting his feet cool down in the water. He does feel some slight nerves and worries for tomorrow, but he knows Erica’s a babe. Whatever happens happens and it will be fine either way.

Some of the guys are playing volleyball in front of him and Braeden’s joined them. Stiles feels his eyebrows furrow as he realizes he knows literally nothing about Braeden. She’s tough as balls, he knows that, but he couldn’t really tell you anything else about her. He wonders who her match would be..maybe Aiden? But he does know Braeden finds him annoying, even though they are both the kind of people that tend to like to show off. Or would they have matched her with a total opposite? Like Danny? Or maybe even Scott?

He sighs, frustrated that he still has no clue how the matchmakers went about doing it. They’ve been here for four weeks now and still no perfect match to show them what they need to do. What tactic they should go for, what mindset. Doesn’t help that no one around him seems to really care about that.

In front of him Derek leaves the game of volley and swims towards the stairs. Stiles’ eyes can’t help but linger on his body as he exits the water. Damn, the man really does look like he was sculpted by the gods. Muscles everywhere and then that tattoo on his back..it does things to him. He drops his eyes to the perfect round shape of Derek’s bum, god that’s one great ass. Honestly does this man have everything? He looks up again to see Derek has caught him staring. He can feel the red bleeding into his cheeks but then Derek just grins and shakes his head at him.

He fully walks out of the pool then, remaining eye contact with Stiles and licking his lips whilst keeping the grin on his lips. Stiles feels his member react to that and quickly looks away. Derek walks past him and Stiles is honestly glad because any more of that and he would have gotten hard enough for everyone to see.

What the hell was that?

Honestly fuck whatever Lydia said, Derek is definitely flirting with him.

And Stiles thinks he might like it..

\--

The sun’s peeking through the leaves of the trees, creating patterns on the forest floor. They’re having a picnic in one of Hawaii’s woods. He likes that the dates he tends to go on are a bit more low-key. The others often tend to go jetskiing or jumping from waterfalls and stuff, which no thank you. Erica sits across of him, looking down at the container of strawberries as her fingers move towards the biggest one. Her curls moving along with the slight breeze that the sea is still giving them here.

Erica looks up, popping the strawberry into her mouth, and raises her eyebrows at him. “What are you looking at Stilinski?”

“I can’t look at my date?”

She grins. “Will cost you extra.”

He laughs, before reaching down to grab himself a piece of bread.  “You nervous for the truthbooth later?”

“I love how we’re both so sure Lydia will get us in.” She snickers.

“Well, it is Lydia we’re talking about.”

He can see her playful exterior ebbing away, making place for a more serious look. “Yes and no. I mean I want to know, but I also don’t. Does that make sense?  I mean I like you, but I don’t know if I like you enough to want to be your perfect match.”

He lets out the breath he’d been holding, glad that she feels the same. “You took the words right out of my mouth. I mean you’re great, but I don’t know if I’m ready to leave the house and stuff.”

Erica nods with sudden enthusiasm, moving her hands wildly. “That whole leaving the house thing, I don’t get it, it ruins everything.”

“I know! Like hello I’ve made friends here. Why should I have to leave?”

Erica shifts in her position across from him as she grabs another strawberry. “Like even when you are really into your perfect match, oh so in love and stuff, wouldn’t you get so bored without the others?”

“You calling me boring, Reyes?”

She deadpans at him, but he can see amusement in her eyes. Then it seems to disappear as the blonde suddenly looks down at her feet, biting at her lip. “I do need to tell you something Stiles.”

A frown comes to his face at her sudden seriousness. “Yeah sure, what’s up? You okay?”

“I..” She starts, still nervously biting her lip as she seems to struggle with finding the right words, “I kind of kissed Boyd.”

Stiles can feels his eyebrows rising. Not necessarily because she kissed someone else, but because she kissed Boyd. Not a combination he’d ever put together himself. In fact, he couldn’t really care that she kissed someone else. They’d never really been exclusive and he’d never really wanted to be. “Really? When?”

“Last night, but to be honest we’ve been hanging out ever since the last house party.”

“You like him then?”

She releases a breath at that, blush marking her cheeks, as a shy smile comes to her lips. She actually looks flustered at the question, he’s never seen her flustered. It looks good on her. She looks happy.

He laughs. “Well that tells me enough.”

She looks up at him, frowning slightly. “You don’t mind?”

“Of course not, look at you, you’re glowing when even thinking of him. How could I possibly mind that?”

“Well I don’t know, most guys wouldn’t be too happy.” She shrugs, a pleased little smile on her face. “We were kind of seeing each other.”

“Yeah but not really, plus I’ve always been your friend first Erica and I’ll still be that now.”

She goes quiet for a second, tilting her head in a considering manner. “Maybe that was why we didn’t really work Stiles. We were always friends first.”

\--

About two hours later they’re standing in the small hut that the show has deemed the truthbooth. From the outside it just looks like a wooden building but inside it’s bright white and modern, a huge tv screen taking up the entire wall in front of them. Their promo pictures staring them down. God he hates his picture, they’d dressed him up like such a preppy happy guy. He looks like an idiot. Erica’s does look good of course, even though it’s clearly been sexualized, boobs out and everything.

Then the light dims and green special effects lights start going over them. Dramatic music on the background. Somehow it does do something to him, his insides suddenly filling up with nerves. This is it. This is where they find out. He kind of does hope they’re not a match.

The music starts going faster and so does his heart. He’s always so responsive to finding out things, especially when they concern him, his entire body just reacts. It’s like Erica can sense it as she reaches over and grabs his hand. He looks at her and she just smiles at him before squeezing his hand supportively, calming him down. They both look back up at the screen when the music stops. The words ‘no match’ flashing before their eyes. Stiles can’t help the wave of relief that flows through him.  He wasn’t ready to go.

Erica turns towards him and tackles him into a hug. He laughs and wraps his arms around her, kissing her on her forehead. He can tell she’s secretly relieved too. “Friends first right catwoman?”

She chuckles, backing out of the embrace. “Always friends batman.”

\--

When they return to the house the others are sitting on the couch, still staring at the no match screen they too had had in front of them. Lydia sends him a pitiful smile from across the room and Scott gets up to hug him.

“I’m sorry bro.”

Stiles just chuckles, patting Scott on the back. Scott hadn’t really realized that him and Erica weren’t that serious. Scott didn’t really get that Stiles was not going to put his entire heart into one of the relationships he’d have in this house, as they’re all quite fake. He wouldn’t get that. He’s so supportive though, it makes Stiles fill up with love for his friend. “It’s okay, Scotty boy.”

Behind them others are moving up from the couch and getting alcohol from the kitchen. Stiles can spot Boyd smiling down at Erica and he can’t help but smile himself at that sight. Maybe they do fit together well.

Allison comes over to them and Stiles can see Scott immediately reacting to her presence, standing up straighter and becoming quiet. He knew the boy still had a thing for her but he’d thought it had become less now he’d started things with Kira.

Allison just smiles and grabs a hold of his arm. “Stiles come, we’ll get you a drink.”

Stiles smiles and happily obliges, following her into the now busy kitchen. Cora and Aiden are standing at the counter, laughing loudly as they pour mixtures into the red cups, others standing around them watching.

“Cora, get Stiles a strong one will ya?” Allison screams from next to him before winking his way. The wink both makes her seem sweet and evil at the same time. Stiles doesn’t know what to think.

From across the counter Cora just smirks at him, pouring his cup at least three-quarters full of what he thinks is vodka. Fucking hell.

“I hate you all.” He says as he sits down on one of the barstools connected to the counter, taking the drink from a still smirking Cora.

Paige just laughs from next to him and bumps his shoulder. “No you don’t.”

Allison sits down on his other side, smiling brightly, as she gets a cup of booze herself. Stiles looks around, noting many people have left the kitchen again. Aiden and all other guys having seemingly slipped out. All the girls across from him seem to be looking at him with that look. That look he doesn’t trust. At all.

Then Lydia enters the kitchen from his right, also wearing that look. Yep, that’s his cue, he’s leaving. Something weird is going on. Just as he’s about to get up Paige grabs his arm.

“Where are you going?” She asks, smiling sweetly. Too sweetly. God they got sweet innocent Paige in on this, this is bad.

“Yeah, I think I need to go see Scott, he had something important to tell me.”

Lydia snickers. “No he didn’t Stiles.”

Stiles can’t help himself, he feels so cornered that he just panics and actually runs out the door. Red cup still in his hand, half of his drink spilling everywhere. He can hear the girls laughing behind him and he can imagine it must have looked pretty stupid.

“We’ll still get you Stiles!” Cora’s voice chases him down the hallway and Stiles knows she’s right, they will most definitely get him. But not tonight.

Still half running he actually bumps right into someone. Quite hard even, spilling the rest of his drink over that person's shirt. He looks up to see Derek looking at him with a mixture of bewilderment and amusement. Of course it’s Derek. Of course it is.

“I am so sorry.”

Derek just chuckles. “Quite the run Stiles.”

Stiles blushes and awkwardly scratches the back of his head. “Your sister was being scary.”

Derek full on laughs at that, shaking his head. “I’d run from that too.”

Stiles grins and looks up to see Derek staring him down. The air between them turns heavy like it did at the pool the other day, some sort of energy forming between them, making it hard for Stiles to look away.

“So the Erica thing must kind of suck, sorry about that.” Derek says, not breaking the increasingly intense eye contact.

Stiles shrugs. “So the wet shirt thing must kind of suck, sorry about that.”

Again that gets Derek to laugh out loud and Stiles beams with accomplishment. Derek doesn’t laugh a lot and he secretly kind of likes it with when Derek laughs. Then Derek looks up again, a daring gleam in his eyes, and he moves backwards. Stiles frowns, feeling slightly confused, before he can see Derek moving to take his shirt off. Holy shit. Stiles swallows, quickly looking to the ground.

He hears Derek chuckle in front of him. “It’s okay to look Stiles.”

Stiles’ cheeks are burning red but he does look up to see Derek still standing in the same position, shirt now in hand and chest bared. Don’t look Stiles, don’t look. Derek chuckles again, now walking past him towards the living room, briefly but purposely touching Stiles as he passes.  

Stiles just stands frozen on the spot. Honestly what the fuck is happening to him in this house? He looks back at Derek’s bare back walking away from him and he swallows. So yeah, Derek really is flirting with him and Stiles doesn’t really know what to do with that information.

\--

It’s sunday, the day of the match-up ceremony, and Lydia and him are lying on the couch in the upstairs living room, discussing tactics. He has his theory notebook out and marks a red cross behind his and Erica’s names.  

“So what have we gathered this week?”

Lydia hums and rolls around on the couch before sighing slightly. “Nothing as usual.”

Stiles bites his lip. It does suck that they aren’t getting any confirmed perfect matches. They know so little without those. But maybe they’re looking at this the wrong way. A ‘no match’ is still information, maybe they could do more with that than they are now.

“Okay, but what if we look at this a different way? Week one and week two we had one beam. One perfect match in those ceremonies. We know that it wasn’t me and Erica in week two and we know that it wasn’t Kira and Boyd in week two, we know it wasn’t Danny and Braeden in week one.”

“So we still have nothing.”

He sighs. “Well not nothing, but very little yeah. But what if that beam was one and the same couple? Everyone switched couples between ceremony one and two except you and Jackson and Cora and Aiden.”

Lydia sits up from her position, eyebrows furrowed as she’s considering it. “So the chance one of us is a perfect match is higher than two random couples?”

Stiles shrugs, nodding. “It could still just be two random couples, but I think it might be worth a shot.”

“Well I’m not going in.” Lydia lets herself fall down on the couch again, voice clear.

Stiles rolls his eyes. She’s such a drama queen. “Why? Because it will ruin the way you’re playing with two boys at the same time?”

She shoots him a dark look, annoyed that he’s bringing this up. “Well yes. And I’m not playing with them, I’m just exploring my options.”

“Sure you are.” He laughs. “Why do you always get so defensive about this? You know I like hearing the stories and that I’m not judging you one bit.”

Lydia just huffs at that, blowing a lost strand of hair out of her face. “I know, but I still don’t want to talk about it. They’re both good options and that’s all I’ll say.”

Stiles grins but the genuine annoyance he hears in her voice is enough warning for him to not push any further. “Okay okay Lyds, just glad you’re still having a good time.”

“I am.”

He huffs out a laugh, god this girl is such high maintenance. He clears his throat. “So we going to try and send Aiden and Cora in then? They still seem pretty close as friends, so we could ask them.”

Lydia hums and he can tell she’s not too happy with Aiden having to go in. However he knows she knows it’s the best shot they can come up with right now. “Fine.”

“Good.” He says, laughing at how much she’s behaving like a jealous girlfriend. “By the way..are you not going to tell me what all that stuff in the kitchen was about yesterday?”

Now it’s Lydia’s turn to laugh. “You’ll find out soon enough Stiles.”

Yep. That scares him. They’ve got something planned and for some reason it includes him. God why?

“How are things going with the Derek is so flirting with me thing then Stiles?”

Stiles deadpans at her, annoyed with how she pretends he is seeing things. “He is flirting with me Lydia. It happened again, couple of times even, and I’m sure of it.”

Lydia snickers, turning towards him with a smug look on her face. “I think you just really want it to happen, don’t you Stiles?”

“Lydia jeez that is so not what this is! I am not imagining things, it’s happening. I know I’m an awkward mess when it comes to flirting but I am not blind.”

“What happened then?”

“Well..” Stiles feels dumb admitting it, especially to Lydia, “he purposely took of his shirt in front of me.”

Lydia just laughs, like flat out laughs. She is so not taking him seriously. He watches her, eyebrows furrowed in annoyance, as she finishes her laughing kick on the couch. “Yeah, you done?”

“I’m sorry Stiles, but come on these things don’t mean anything.”

“We were just with the two of us! There was no need for him to take his shirt off, I mean yes it was wet, but still.”

Lydia, finally having calmed down from her laughter, just looks at him unimpressed. “I think you just really want him to like you Stiles.”

“Oh fuck off Lydia. I know what I see.”

Lydia just hums, shrugging her shoulders, clearly not agreeing with him. But she doesn’t say anything, which he’s very glad for. He knows what he saw. He knows Derek is flirting with him. He couldn’t care if Lydia agrees or not.

\--

Stiles wakes up feeling irritated and the bedroom around him is still dark. He groans softly and turns around in his bed to grab his phone from the nightstand. The time reads 4:46 and he sighs. He had actually been sleeping pretty well in this house. At home he usually has really bad nights and really good nights, but here they’d all been just okay. No random waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to sleep again.

Well, until now that is.

He knows there’s no use in trying to fall asleep again, he can feel his body being too awake for that. As Aiden’s loud snoring is filling up the room he tries to not make too much noise as he gets out of bed. Though he supposes that if people are sleeping through the sounds Aiden is making, they’ll sleep through this. God, how did he even to manage to sleep through that?

He walks downstairs into the livingroom and is surprised to see the room being lit up by the white artificial light of a laptop. As he takes the last step down from the stairs the person behind the laptop looks up at him and the flash of raven black hair makes him recognize Kira.

“Hey, what are you doing up?” He asks as he moves to sit down next to her.

She smiles at him. “It’s my grandmother’s birthday, just got done skyping with her. Didn’t really see the point in going back to bed.”

“Your gran up late as well then?”

Kira chuckles. “No, she still lives back in Korea. Time zones and stuff.”

His eyebrows rise at that. “Ah wow, how cool of you to stay up for her.” He frowns, suddenly wondering something. “Are you Korean then?”

“Well my mom’s Japanese and my dad Korean,” she says as she moves the laptop away from her lap, “so I’m a mix.”

“That sounds pretty nice, did you grow up with a lot of influence from that?”

Kira shrugs and he can see she doesn’t really feel like talking about it. Which makes him feel bad, he knows not everyone shares his need to know everything. “Sorry if I’m overstepping.”

“Oh no,” Kira quickly corrects him, chuckling, “it’s fine I was just thinking. I mean yes sort of, but my parents do also really share the American values so not too much to be honest.”

He smiles, realizing he really does like Kira even though they don’t spend a lot of time together. “I can see that. My mom was Polish so I did get some of the cultural things but definitely more American things.”

Kira’s smile is bright. “Yeah exactly! Like the food for sure and of course the complaining about the way Americans do things, but not much else.”

Stiles laughs, knowing what she means. His mom used to complain so much about the difference in American people’s ways versus Polish people, but she never really did something about it. “Definitely that last part yeah.”

Kira laughs, a cute and bubbly laugh, and it makes him smile. Then she kind of regains a seriousness as she looks at him. “Umh Stiles, would you mind if I asked you something?”

He shakes his head. “Of course not, shoot away.”

“It’s about Scott.” She starts and he can feel a grin coming up, he should have known. “Is he..like has he said anything about me?”

“He talks about you yeah. What do you want to know?” His grin is definitely present now.

Kira shrugs and he can see her becoming flustered. It’s adorable. “Just..you know..do you think he likes me?”

This is so cute Stiles feels like his grin will split his face in half. “I’d say he does Kira, I’d say he really does.”

She smiles at that, letting out a breath she’d obviously been holding. “Okay good, yeah I just wasn’t sure.”

“Scott’s the kind of guy that doesn’t go after someone unless he really likes them, so the fact he’s spending so much time with you says a lot. There’s no need to worry.” He says. “And if Scott were ever to act like a dick to you just tell me, I’ll kick his ass for you.”

Kira laughs again and Stiles decides he really likes the sound of it. They stay and chat for a while, kind of waiting around for the acceptable hour of six to have breakfast. Turns out Kira’s quite the health freak, not in a diet kind of way but she does really watch what she eats and makes sure to exercise enough. Which explains how Stiles ended up doing yoga at seven in the morning after telling Kira he never really works out, which according to her was unacceptable.

\--

“So Isaac, I think it’s time for a love life update.”

Stiles laughs, he should have known this would be brought up when Erica and Lydia were in the same room as Isaac. Isaac just becomes pale in front of him, clearly not wanting to have this conversation. Isaac looks at him for help and Stiles just laughs. Not much he can do here. He wants to stick up for the guy, but is honestly too afraid to speak against the girls. They have nails.

Erica sits next to him, twirling a strand of her around her finger, as she stares down Isaac. “Yeah Isaac, how are things with dear Allison?”

“Umh..good I suppose, I don’t know.”

“Truthbooth worthy good?” Lydia asks, eyebrows raised.

“I don’t know, we’ve just been getting along. Having fun.”

“And that’s the most important thing, right girls?” Stiles adds, deciding to help the guy a little.

Erica sends him an amused glare before hitting him on the chest. “Shut up Stiles.”

Stiles laughs but does definitely shut up. He likes that nothing really changed between him and Erica. They can still fuck around, have fun, just now without the pressure of not knowing what they are exactly and having to think about that all the time. It’s good.

“So, you do like her most out of the girls in the house? Or are there still other people you’re interested in?”

“Well umh..” Isaac stammels. “I mean yeah I guess, we did have a fight the other day but we resolved it. And I think that’s good.”

“Oeh a fight.” Erica basically purrs. “What about?”

“Just her thinking I was flirting with Cora.”

“Were you flirting with Cora?” Lydia smirks, putting down her phone on the table to fully pay attention.

Isaac becomes red. “Well not really, I mean I was drunk but I don’t think I was. Think Cora was doing most of the flirting.”

Stiles grins. He can see that happening, Cora basically forcing herself on Isaac.  He laughs. “But you didn’t really mind?”

Isaac looks at him with a genuine look of betrayal and Stiles spits out a laugh. “Sorry had to ask.”

“No, you’re all ganging up against me and I don’t need to take that.” Isaac says, looking deadly serious and Stiles has to fight back his laughter. Especially when the other guy dramatically stands up and goes to sit with Boyd and Derek.

Erica just looks at him with a shit-eating grin. “Poor guy, he has no clue what he wants.”

Lydia smirks too, picking back up her phone from the table. “Do guys ever?”

\--

Stiles is drunk. Once again. But not the good kind of drunk this time. Not the whoo I’m so happy kind of drunk. No. It’s the sad drunk. The heart wrenching vulnerable drunk. It’s the drunk in which his depression sees its opportunity to strike.  

He walks up the stairs alone, hurrying because he can feel his breathing starting to become uneven and he doesn’t want anyone in this house to see him having a panic attack. His throat feels tight as he rushes into one of the male bedrooms and walks out onto the attached balcony. The fresh air hitting his face does him good and he finally allows himself to breathe. His heart is beating fast inside his chest. It all feels heavy, like someone’s putting their entire weight upon him. Like the world is putting its entire weight on him.

His hands grip onto the bannister and he squeezes his eyes shut as he tries to remember the breathing mantra his therapist gave him. In like the sun out like the moon. In like the sun out like the moon. In like the sun..

Surely but slowly his breathing evens out and his chest starts to feel less heavy. Fucking hell. He takes a deep breath in before allowing himself to sit down on the couch.  Why does this have to happen? He should have known getting this drunk this often would go south one day. His mind just started spinning, involving every bad memory and bad thought he’d ever had and the alcohol didn’t allow him the space to fight back.

His breathing is still a little fast but at least regular again as he places his head between his knees. Breathing in and out again his head finally stops spinning. Then he hears the door to the bedroom opening and he quickly sits up. He looks around to see Derek standing in the middle of the room, looking at him with slight confusion.

The other man walks forward, frown present on his face. “You okay Stiles?”

Stiles just nods, not fully trusting his voice yet.

“What are you doing out here?” Derek’s standing next to him on the balcony now and Stiles curses himself because it’s probably fucking obvious his eyes have been tearing.

He clears his throat, looking down. “Kind of needed to get away.”

Derek nods and Stiles can see a form of agreement in his eyes. Derek lets himself fall down onto the couch next to him, lying down completely. Stiles breathes in, his heart had started beating faster again at the thought of Derek seeing his panic, and looks at how Derek is lying down on the couch. He seems so at peace, more comfortable than Stiles has ever seen him. He forces himself to lie down as well, resting his head on the backside of the couch and looking up at the night sky. They sit in silence for a while, just the sound of their breathing filling up the air between them. Stiles can feel himself calming down.

“Your breathing okay again?” Derek suddenly asks, turning towards him.

A rush of panic and shame rush through his body. Derek had seen it. Fuck. The shame fills him up, he hates people seeing that part of him. That weakness. Because that’s what it is, him being fucking weak. And now Derek had seen that. Fucking shit. He looks up at Derek, expecting some sort of awkward pretending to be worried look, but there is just a genuine look of interest there.

“Yeah, it’s better.” He just huffs out, breaking their eye contact.

Derek nods next to him, somewhat pleased it seems. Stiles studies him then, even though his cheeks are still burning red, and he thinks he sees some understanding in Derek’s reaction. Derek eyes shoot towards him then, capturing his. There’s a genuinity there that Stiles can’t ignore and the longer he looks into Derek’s eyes, which are so so damn green, the more he can feel his shame ebbing away. But something else inside him does rise, that now familiar tension forms in the space between them, and Stiles has to look away as it becomes too intense for him. Fucking Derek always becomes too intense for him. But it’s a different sort of intense than he’s had before with him, this one feels more genuine.

From the corners of his eyes he sees Derek shifting away too, before speaking up. “I used to get them too. Real bad ones. My sister Laura was the only one able to calm me down.”

Stiles looks up at him and sees Derek’s jaw tightening as he continues. “Haven’t had one in a while now, but I can imagine that this house and everyone in here takes a toll on you.”

“Yeah, I don’t know what happened exactly. It was just there all of a sudden.” Stiles says, for some reason able to talk about his attacks without feeling like he’s bothering someone.

“They always are.” Derek sends him a small smile.

Stiles looks at him then, realizing he no longer feels any panic at being seen.  None at all. It just feels..okay. Okay to talk about this. Okay with Derek. Derek hadn’t reacted like a prick, hadn’t reacted like an overly worried mom that didn’t know what to do, he’d just reacted like it was no big deal. Like it was a part of life. Like he understood. Which Stiles supposes he did. Derek’s eyes meet his from next to him and he smiles carefully. Stiles wants to return it but what he’s feeling is too serious for that. So he just looks at him, staring into his eyes. “Thank you.”

That turns Derek’s careful smile into a real one and a slight blush reaches his cheeks. Stiles can’t not look at it. The man truly is beautiful. Derek’s eyes meet his again and Stiles feels his stomach tightening, the tension from earlier returning. Derek swallows visibly as the air between them becomes heavy. Derek’s eyes are boring into his intensely and Stiles feels the need to look down but at the same time he doesn’t want to.

“You’re welcome.” Derek then murmurs as he puts on a smile, breaking the pull between them.

Stiles sits confused as to what just happened, the simple words having changed the entire atmosphere. Derek’s looking forward now, staring down at the garden. Stiles doesn’t know what to think, except that he somehow feels awfully disappointed.


	2. Chapter 2

The days after that were strange. Whenever Derek would be in the same room as Stiles things seemed to turn uncomfortable, Derek never really looking him in the eye. Stiles had never noticed exactly how much Derek did that, but now he certainly noticed how much Derek wasn’t doing it.

Stiles was confused. He doesn’t really know what changed, doesn’t know whether he did anything wrong. It pisses him off mostly.

But if Derek wants to be a dick he can be a dick. Stiles has other things to do anyway.

Like..sitting next to a reading Lydia underneath the parasol because he still can’t sit in the hawaiian sun. Lydia’s busy reading cosmopolitan and he’s finished the four books he’s brought with him already, so okay maybe he doesn’t have a lot of other things to do.

Across from them Isaac is talking to Allison, which Stiles can’t help but grin about. Isaac had really been trying to make his move and honestly Stiles can kind of see the two of them together. Sort of. Not fully. Not even half fully to be honest, but okay whatever.

Next to them Braeden’s sunbathing on her own and Stiles’ brows furrow. Braeden never really seems to be talking to anyone, maybe Malia sometimes, but she’s mostly by herself. Her matchup picks always seem random too. Hmm, who is she interested in? He knows very little about Braeden anyway, but for some reason he never really feels the need to talk to her. Not really his type of person.

However she is in this game with him, so maybe he should reach out sometime.

Not today though, he thinks as he closes his eyes and enjoys the summer breeze.

It’s later that night that Derek looks him in the eye again. For the first time since their conversation on the balcony. It’s bad.

Stiles is sitting with Erica, Boyd and Isaac. They’re playing cards. Derek walks by and Boyd waves him over, as the two of them have become close friends. Derek just looks at Boyd, then looks at Stiles and keeps on walking. It was the coldest look Stiles had ever seen on the guy and he swallows, not understanding what he had done wrong.

\--

“So, I totally like Kira dude. She is so cool.”

Stiles laughs, even though his mouth is currently filled with cornflakes and he probably shouldn’t, shaking his head. “You sound surprised.”

Scott frowns. “Of course I’m not surprised but I liked Allison so much that I just didn’t you know..expect this.”

“So the whole Allison thing is over then?”

Scott goes quiet for a bit and Stiles can see his best friend has been struggling with that for a while. “No. No it’s not actually.” Scott looks at him, guilt visible in his eyes. “Is that bad?”

Stiles shrugs, looking up at his friend. “No, it’s not bad. I mean, it’s not something you can really control.”

“I’ve been trying to get her out of my mind, but like she keeps on laughing and smiling. With Lahey.” He says Isaac’s name like Isaac is the devil himself.

Stiles huffs out a laugh. “Hey, Isaac is a good guy. Lay off. And well..you’re laughing with Kira now right?”

“Yeah, yeah I am! She’s so fun.” Scott bites his lip. “But Allison’s laugh..”

Stiles can’t help the grin coming to his lips, Scott has always been such a romantic. He just can’t let Allison go, even though she shows no interest. Bit stalker like too, now that Stiles thinks of it. “I think you should just focus on Kira now, buddy. You do like her right?”

“Yeah, for sure. She is super cool and I definitely like her Stiles. You’re right, I should just focus on her.”

“I’m always right.”

Scott just smiles at him like he agrees, all happy, and Stiles feels fondness rising up in his chest. God, Scott is so cute.

Behind them Cora comes trotting down the stairs into the kitchen, still wearing her pyjama. “Hey guys! What’s for breakfast?”

“Cereal.” Scott smiles.

“Ugh.” Cora’s good mood seems to disappear completely at hearing that. Grunting, she goes to open the fridge and pulls out a pack of orange juice instead.

She moves in on the chair next to him and takes a sip straight from the curtain. Stiles wants to be disgusted, but somehow it’s charming when she does it. And knowing her, she’ll finish it within the hour anyway. The girl can drink.

“So, you nervous about your truth booth later?” He asks.

Cora looks at him, eyebrows sharp. “Officially it hasn’t even been decided yet, Stilinski.”

“Yeah, but it’s probably going to happen, let’s be honest here.”

“I know I’m voting for you guys!” Scott pipes in.

Cora rolls her eyes, before turning to look at Stiles. “Well whatever. Me and Aiden are friends so it wouldn’t be a big deal either way. Just prefer to stay here to be honest.”

“Yeah, I get that. Leaving the house now would suck.” Scott sighs as if it’s the worst thing he can imagine. Stiles shakes his head, grinning.

“Well, you can’t have everything right? We’ll see what happens later today.” She shrugs. “I do hope you’re right Stilinski, that we’re a match. I want that money.”

Stiles nods. He wants that money too.

\--

It’s late in the afternoon, sun hot on his shoulders, when he sees Braeden again. She’s by herself, much like the last times he’s seen her. A wave of pity rolls through his chest. Where yesterday he’d just seen it as her being antisocial or just not the kind of person he’d like to talk to, today he just feels bad for her.

She doesn’t really seem to have a connection with anyone, no one seems to make an effort to get to know her and instead of going over there and being nice Stiles had been thinking of her as weird. God, he’s an asshole isn’t he?

He shakes his head and starts walking towards where the dark skinned girl sits reading a book on the other side of the garden, determined to make friends.

That’s when Derek suddenly enters his line of sight. Stiles feels a tingle in his stomach at seeing him. Wearing nothing more than a bright yellow swimming trunk, which should look ridiculous but doesn’t, and carrying two large cocktail glasses. Stiles stops walking and frowns when he realises Derek is actually also walking towards Braeden. Braeden spots Derek and smiles up at him, a wider and more sincere smile than he’s ever seen her have before. Derek smiles back at her, also bright and happy, before sitting down next to her on the grass.

Stiles quickly turns around, not wanting to be spotted walking their way, and for someone reason feels utterly defeated.

\--

It’s date day. Truthbooth day.

He’s standing next to Lydia when they’re filming the results of the challenge. Lydia had forced everyone to not do too well in this challenge and let Aiden win. They needed to test this theory. Not that Aiden really needed too much help with that, as today had been another physical challenge and Aiden is one of the buffest guys they have.

Stiles can see Lydia is still slightly annoyed about all this. She’s biting her lip and mostly watching her freshly manicured nails when Aiden picks Cora to go on date with. And therefore be able to go into the truthbooth with.

Stiles isn’t exactly sure of the whole Lydia and Aiden situation. He knows they’ve been spending more time together, but he’d also seen Lydia with Jackson the other day. Yet he can tell Lydia isn’t too happy with Aiden having to maybe go away.

Jackson had actually won the challenge as well. Stiles guesses it was some way of proving to Lydia he was no less than Aiden. Stiles has to admit, he isn’t a fan of Jackson but the boy has only had eyes for Lydia. His emotions seem genuine, which makes Stiles more of a fan.

He’s less of a fan of the fact that Derek also won. Just looking at Derek makes Stiles feel odd these days, but when Derek then picks Braeden to go on date with Stiles has to put on a fake smile to not show anyone that it stings.

The rest of the day goes by rather quickly: Stiles having realised how pathetic he is for being jealous of Braeden and how it makes no sense for him to be this into Derek, them all having voted on the couples. Stiles reminding everyone to vote on Aiden and Cora to test out their theory and then it was time to find out if they were right or not.

Lydia walks into the living room, back from her date with Jackson, looking pleased. Stiles smirks at her. “Enjoyed having two guys compete over you all day?”

Lydia just raises her eyebrows as she sits down next to him on the couch, looking smug.

Cora, who’d walked in behind her, ploffs down in front of him on the floor. She turns around and deadpans at Stiles. “Never been so annoyed and disgusted by anything as these two boys.”

Stiles spits out a laugh. Cora just shakes her head and turns around to the tv, where the chosen couple’s names will soon appear. He glances over at Lydia, who doesn’t look any less pleased. He gives her a look.

She shrugs. “I had fun.”

“Glad someone did.” Cora huffs from where’s she now seated in between Stiles’ knees.

Stiles can’t help but laugh. God, he really should spend more time with Cora. She’s more fun than he originally thought. Looking up from his laughter he notices Derek is looking at him from across the room, where’s he’s standing with Braeden.

They lock eyes and Stiles feels confused as to why Derek is looking at him so intensely. He turns his head, looking away, and feels good about not getting back involved.

Then the tv screen starts beeping and their host Ryan comes to say his awkward two sentences that Aiden and Cora will go into the truthbooth and find out if they’re a perfect match. Honestly, where did mtv even find this guy? He’s so so awkward.

The atmosphere does turn tense while Cora and Aiden are away, everyone staring at the screen. Stiles does notice Lydia getting nervous next to him so he grabs her hand. She just smacks his away and Stiles can’t help but grin. Okay, Lydia, okay. He focuses back on the screen just in time to see the words ‘no match’ jump up.

The room releases a shared sigh around them. So that hadn’t worked. Another truthbooth down the drain. Stiles is bummed out, he’d thought this might actually work.

“Nice one, Stilinski.” Jackson spats from behind the couch.

Fucking asshole Jackson.

But before Stiles can even say anything in return, Derek already speaks up. “Shut up Jackson.”

Stiles looks at Derek in shock, but the other man seems to be averting his eyes, and Stiles has never felt more confused.

\--

“I want everyone on a line and for the love of god can I get some genuine looking reactions this time?” Finnstock looks at them with annoyance. Stiles rolls his eyes.

Their host Ryan is standing awkwardly next to Finstock and Stiles laughs. God, he just loves how incredibly uncomfortable Ryan seems. Like now, he’s got to surprise the cast that they’re going on a trip with the lot of them and he’s practicing his straight face. Stiles can’t help but find it entertaining.

“So guys, we have a surprise for you all.” Ryan starts after Finstock gave the signal, stoic face and all. “We are sending all of you on a overnight trip to the famous beaches of Oahu!”

Next to him the girls are jumping up and down in fake surprise and Stiles does his best to make his laugh seem as genuine as possible.

Finnstock nods to the camera crew, who finally lower their cameras and the take is done. Stiles sighs, relieved that ten takes had been enough. They’ve had scenes that took twenty five and he is not up for a repeat of that.

They’d arrived at the beach around dinnertime, finding entire tables decked with food. There are huge plates of paella and of a Hawaiian chicken pineapple dish. It’s good and the beach truly is beautiful, with a sea that seems to be bright blue. The sand is almost white and palm trees blowing in the wind. It looks like what people think of when they hear the word paradise. He truly tries to enjoy it all, but somehow his mood seems to be ruined.

Lydia has picked up on it, sending him a pointed look from across the table. He sighs, giving her a fake grin but he does try to not sit here being a downer. Scott is telling some wild story further down the table and Stiles smiles at seeing his best friend enjoying himself. Kira laughs at something Scott said and Stiles can feel his smile becoming more and more genuine. Kira could be really good for Scott, if only Scott could get Allison out of his mind.

Then Aiden says something across from him. Yeah, Aiden had been quick to take the position next to Lydia at the table. Jackson had huffed annoyedly and had taken the next closest position to Lydia, which was next to Stiles.

Which Stiles wouldn’t even have a problem with, if Malia hadn’t decided to sit on his other side.

Let’s just say, he had a fun dinner.

They finish the food and behind them multiple campfires are being lit by crew members. Stiles smiles, he likes a good campfire. They split up into small groups and Stiles sees Scott, Kira, Isaac and Paige going one way and Erica and Lydia another. He’s conflicted for a moment before following the girls, he doesn’t really feel like the sweet, constantly happy people right now. The three of them sit down around the flames, Boyd joining them. Erica looks at him tenderly and Stiles smiles, yeah he thinks those two might actually work. Then he spots Derek at the campfire next to him, sitting together with Braeden. Stiles can’t help but be annoyed at the sight.

Erica gives him a punch on the shoulder. “Stop moping Stiles, I don’t even want to know what you’re moping about but-”

“It’s Derek.” Lydia chimes in from next to her. An evil grin on her lips.

“Derek?” Erica’s brows furrow. “There’s something with Derek?”

Stiles sighs at hearing their voices rise to their gossip level. “There’s nothing with Derek.”

“Stiles likes him.” Lydia grins.

“I didn’t like him okay, he’s just..”

“Someone you like?” Erica smirks across from him.

Boyd decides to stand up. “I am not going to be a part of this conversation.”

Erica laughs, smiling up at him and squeezing his hand. “That’s okay baby, see you later.”

Stiles sees his opportunity. “Oh, calling him baby now?”

Erica blushes, she actually blushes, before hitting him on the chest. “Maybe and don’t you dare mention it ever again.”

“Yes and don’t try to change the subject Stiles.” Lydia looks at him knowingly. “Why were you moping about Derek?”

“I feel offended that I haven’t heard about the Derek crush before.” Erica looks at him and actually pouts, her red lips shining in the moonlight.

“It’s not a crush!” He says, for the first time admitting to himself that he had been in a little deep, “I just...I just liked him.”

Erica’s teasing grin seems to mellow down into a pitiful smile. Her eyes are genuine when she looks at him. “And?”

“And...well I don’t know. He’s suddenly not talking to me anymore. I think I scared him away. Or maybe Lydia was right and I was just imagining things.”

Lydia shifts on the logs they’re sitting on. “I wouldn’t say you were imagining things Stiles, but maybe you wanted it to mean more than it did.”

Erica nods next to him, a pitiful look in her eyes. He knows they’re just trying to be nice and are being gentle on him, but that just annoys him right now.

“God guys, we’re being awful dramatic. Nothing even happened.”

“Except you realizing you like this guy.” Lydia shrugs.

Stiles sighs, looking down at his feet as he buries them in the sand. “Yeah, maybe I do.”

\--

More and more people joined their bonfire and more and more people got drunk. Isaac’s was laying draped over Stiles’ lap and Stiles had been enjoying running his fingers through the other guy’s curls. He has no idea what everyone around him is talking about anymore, the heavy beers and tequila shots having taken over. He can see his friends getting restless around them and he kind of agrees. As much as he likes touching Isaac’s curly curls, he wants to dance. He misses really going clubbing and grins at the thought of taking Erica to Jungle. She’d fit right in.

Erica looks him in the eye as if she knows what he’s thinking. He gives her a suggestive eyebrow, they could just dance on the beach. Create the music and mood themselves. Erica nods, a devilish grin on her lips, as she stands up and moves to take off her tight dress.

“Skinny dipping!” She screams, drunk and loud.

Stiles laughs, that was so not what he had meant. He shakes his head, but is surprised to see a lot of people seem to want to join Erica in her naked run towards the water. He looks around, bewildered, and sees Danny, Jackson, Lydia and even Allison following her. All taking of their clothes as they go, the beach covered in pieces of swimwear and crop tops. Stiles can’t help the laugh on his face, but when he sees his own Scotty joining the fun he decides fuck it.

Sitting up straight, he moves to take off his graphic t-shirt, and stands up to go after them. Next to him he can see Cora doing the same and damn...some good boobs.

He looks back at where he left Isaac on the logs and extends a hand, inviting him along. Isaac just shakes his head, lips tight, and looking slightly sad. Stiles makes a mental note to remember this and maybe one time ask him about it.

He’s too drunk for that now though, too happy, too naked.

He rushes down into the water, letting the waves take over his body, and he laughs loudly as he hears everyone around him splashing and laughing. The water feels slightly cold on his lower parts but not unbearable and he thinks all of them are way too drunk to really care.

Scott jumps on him from behind and Stiles laughs as he’s forced underwater. They fight to get the other off of them and it makes Stiles think of the good old days, when they wrestled like this every day after school. He’s laughing, kicking backwards, hoping to hit Scott and knock him off.

He sees Lydia pass them by, giving them a judgemental but amused look, and she honestly looks like a mermaid, her hair slick and wet running down to cover her boobs. Jackson’s behind her like a puppy dog and Stiles laughs, surprised to not see Aiden around.

Scott has gotten off his back and is making his way towards Allison. Stiles shakes his head, he wonders if that’s a good idea.

Continuing to look around, seeing Erica making out with Boyd, suddenly makes him realize he’s kind of on his own. Not only now in the sea, but in the entire show. He doesn’t really have a girl he’s been flirting with lately. He’s only been wanting to flirt with Derek. And that hasn’t even gone well.

He turns around, suddenly not in the bubbly happy drunk mood anymore and bumps into what feels like a wall of muscle. He looks up wanting to apologize, expecting Danny or maybe Aiden, but he feels lost for words seeing it’s Derek.

When had Derek even gotten in the water?

They stare at each other for a bit and damn..why is this man so hot? Awkwardly, he shakes his head and tries to not look like an idiot. “Hi.”

“Hi Stiles.”

Derek’s voice sounds rough and if Stiles isn’t mistaken: it sounds flirty, like the other times before the balcony. Stiles stares at him and swallows when he sees Derek staring back, his green eyes still reflecting some of the pale moonlight. A water drop stuck on one of his eyelashes. Stiles swallows as he feels Derek’s eyes bore into his and something in his stomach seems to pull him towards Derek.

Derek looks down at him, swallowing. A tension returning in the air between them.

Stiles is too drunk for this. He doesn’t know what to do or say, except he knows he really wants to kiss Derek right now. He looks back up. God, Derek is so beautiful. And Derek is very much still looking at him.

Stiles, as much as he loves the look he’s getting right now, he feels like it’s too easy like this. He’s still offended by Derek’s actions of the last few days. There wasn't any reason to ignore Stiles

“So you’re talking to me again?” Stiles says, glad he’s drunk because he wouldn’t have had the balls to ask sober.

He can hear Derek sigh. “I never meant to..”

“To what? Ignore me?” Stiles says teasingly.

“I...I wasn’t trying to do that, I just..” Derek’s brows furrow. It’s cute.

Stiles laughs, Derek’s frustration somehow amusing to him. “It’s okay Derek. Really, no worries man.”

Derek looks at him, brows still furrowed, looking unsure of the situation. Stiles meant it though, of course it’s okay. He’d been overreacting massively anyway. He just really does have a crush on Derek. He’s no longer ashamed to admit it.

Derek, who’s looking at him unsurely with those big green eyes. Stiles wants to get lost in them. Derek eyes move down to his lips and Stiles feels the need to swallow. Then Derek’s eyes come back up to his and Stiles can see him moving forward. Oh my god.

“I’m glad.” Derek murmurs out and Stiles is confused for a brief second, Derek’s eyes already having made him forget what they’d been talking about.

He smiles, a little tense, because what exactly is happening? Derek is still looking at him intensely, eyes boring into his. It does things to him. It does things to his dick, to be more specific. Stiles’ eyes widen as he realizes he’s still completely naked. That Derek’s completely naked. Oh my god. Oh my god, oh my god.

He can feel the red rushing to his cheeks. He’s naked next to a naked Derek in the middle of the fucking sea, it’s like a wet dream come true. But it’s sort of awkward in real life.  
Derek seems to realize the mood has switched, the intense and definitely flirty (fuck you Lydia from the future) look having left his eyes. He just looks at Stiles, a confused smile at his lips, and Stiles smiles back. A realer smile than anything he’s had on his face the last few days.

Things feel okay again.

\---

“I don’t know what to anymore.”

Scott looks up at him, helpless and seemingly wrecked with guilt.

“Scott, nothing has even happened.”

“But it almost did.” Scott looks at him as if the world has just ended.

Stiles still doesn’t understand what exactly almost happened. Scott, like he had seen, has spent the later remainder of the evening naked in the sea with Allison. They’d talked and even when getting out of the water hadn’t left each other’s side. But they just talked, they hadn’t touched each other in any way.

“Okay, but Scotty you didn’t do anything. Right?”

“Of course not,” Scott gasps, “I would never do that to Kira.”

“So what’s the problem then?” Stiles asks, leaning against the doorway of their bedroom. Everyone else is outside, enjoying the good weather. Stiles secretly kind of wants to join them, he loves Scott and wants to support him but it’s always just the same Allison story.

Scott lets himself fall down on the bed, sighing dramatically like only he can. “The problem is that I wanted it. I wanted something to happen.”

Stiles feels his eyebrows rise. “So Allison isn’t only in your mind anymore?”

“I just...I know I said I could focus on just Kira but god, she’s so pretty Stiles. And funny. And smart.”

Stiles wants to shake his head. “You can’t have them both.”

“I know that.”

“So you need to think buddy, which one do you like more?”

Scott covers his eyes with his hands and whines unhappily. “I don’t know.”

Stiles honestly doesn’t get Scott. How can he be this torn up? How can he like both of them this much? Especially after just four weeks. Scott was truly a hopeless romantic, falling in love like it was nothing.

Stiles goes to sit down on the bed next to where Scott is lying. “Yeah I don’t know what to tell you, but watch out Scott: I promised Kira I’d kick your ass if you hurt her.”  
Scott groans behind him.

“And I meant it.”

“And I don’t want to hurt her Stiles! I just don’t know if I like her more than I like Allison!”

“I’m not judging you buddy, I get it.” Stiles says, even though it’s not a hundred percent true. He’s quiet for a moment. “Do you want my advice?”

Scott sits up on the bed, looking at him with earnest eyes, and nods.

“Kira really likes you. I’d think she’d be good for you.”

Scott nods, taking the information in, and goes to speak up. Except Stiles wasn’t done yet.

“But I also see the way you talk about her. And it’s nothing compared to the way you talk about Allison.”

Scott goes quiet at that, nodding slightly, before letting himself fall down on the bed again. Stiles just smiles at his dramatics, squeezing his knee supportively before standing up to leave his friend alone with his thoughts.

\--

His bedsheet tickles on lower legs and Stiles sighs annoyedly as he kicks them off. Sleeping has kind of been a problem in this house the last week. It's too fucking hot.

Deciding there's no use in laying in here to do nothing else than stare at the ceiling, Stiles gets out of the bed. It's nine in the morning and most of his roommates are still sound asleep. He walks into the kitchen, finding a couple of crew members are already there refilling the fridge and pantries. He smiles at them. "Morning."

"Goodmorning Stiles." One of the women says. Stiles gives her a friendly nod, recognizing her from his first interview. He thinks her name is Jennifer. 

"How's life been for you guys then?" Stiles asks, sliding down onto one of the bar stools.

Jennifer makes a non-commiting sound. "Pretty hectic I'd say. There's a lot to do."

"We giving you trouble?" Stiles forces out a laugh, hoping it doesn't sound too fake.

"No, no, not at all." Jennifer gives him a quick smile, holding on to her clipboard tightly. He wonders if she's always this tense or if there's really something going wrong this season. 

That's when Finnstock comes barging into the room, looking tired and pissed off. He sees Stiles sitting at the counter and grunts out a hey Stilinski before walking outside into the garden. Jennifer sends him an apologetic smile before rushing after him. Okay, something is defenitly going on. He turns around to see Danny walking out of the room Finnstock just came out of and Danny halts when he sees Stiles is there. He looks caught, as if Stiles wasn't supposed to see all this.

Stiles archs an eyebrow at Danny. "Hey Danny, what's going on?"

Danny seems slightly panicked at his question and Stiles can feel himself becoming more and more confused. "Seriously? Is everything alright?"

Danny looks conflicted, clearly wondering if he should say something or not. Stiles' eyebrows furrow. That's when Danny sighs, apparently decides fuck it, and comes to sit down next to Stiles.

It's quiet for a bit, Danny grabbing an apple out of the fruitbasket and letting it roll over the kitchen counter. Nerves visible within the action. Then he looks sideays at Stiles. "They found out I'm gay."

Stiles can feel his eyebrows rise. So, that was not what he had expected. I mean, he knew Danny was at least sort of into guys. He had kissed the guy and he hadn't been very reserved in his kissing. But he supposes he thought Danny at least liked girls too, as he was on this show. 

"That explains Finnstock's angry little walk."

Danny, who Stiles is used to see laughing about every little thing, just sends him a tense smile. "Yeah. He said the only reason he isn't kicking me off is because it's too deep into the season. They'd lose too much money."

"Wow." Stiles feels slightly shocked. He gets why Finnstock and the crew and mtv aren't pleased with Danny. He's sort of been scamming them. But it still feels heavy, because it's not as if the guy has really fucked someone over. He's just gay.

"You can't tell anyone Stiles."

"Of course I won't, you know me."

Danny nods and Stiles can see he's very worked up about everything. He smiles, giving Danny's shoulder a supportive squeeze.  "It'll be okay Danny. Just me and the crew know. It won't get out and you're still here. We can just continue on like nothing happened."

"I'm not getting all the money." Danny sighs.

"What?" Stiles' mouth falls open.

"They called me a cheat, which let's be honest, I am. So they're only giving me half of my share."

Stiles nods, feeling bewildered as he takes it all in. It's awful that Danny isn't getting all he was promised, but Stiles also thinks it's sort of fair. Danny had been lying to everyone, Finnstock had to take some form of action. 

"That sucks man."

"Well, at least they're not sending me away." Danny huffs out a breath. "Or forcing me to kiss any girls."

A slight smirk is visible at Danny's lips at that comment and even though Stiles can still see the worries going on in Danny's head, he's glad to see him smile. 

Stiles swallows, looking at how Danny is holding onto the apple tightly. "I don't want to intrude so tell me to shut up if you want to, but I have to ask. Why did you come on here Danny?"

Danny shrugs, looking as if he doesn't really know himself. "I need the money and I love the show. A friend suggested why don't I just do it and I didn't really see why not."

Stiles nods, not fully understanding the logic behind that, but deciding he doesn't really care. Personally he's glad Danny is on the show. "Your secret is safe with me Danny. I couldn't care less if you were gay or straight."

Danny rolls his eyes. "Easy for the bisexual to say."

\--

Honestly, being in this house gets pretty boring.

They have a challenge a week, the lucky winners then go on dates (Stiles isn’t too proud to admit he’s jealous when he doesn’t win: getting to go out this house is something they all crave for) and then they have the truthbooth moment, which is never boring.

But other than that it’s pretty boring. They have a party every week, but always in the house, and sometimes they have a trip like they just had. The rest of the time is free for them to spend however they want. Which you know, sound good but after a while you’ve spend so many days by the pool that that’s no longer fun.

The first two weeks he’d loved it, having their own pool and a luxurious villa with everything they could wish for. But it’s been...how many weeks now? Four? Five?

With shock he realises it’ll indeed be week five in two days. They’ll be at their halfway point. And they’ll have zero confirmed perfect matches. They really should have had at least one, maybe even two. God they just have six truthbooths left. How will they ever get all perfect matches together in that time?

He’ll look into his notebook, see if he can think of a way. He stands up, wanting to go grab it from the bedroom, when he sees lunch is being served. They cook themselves mostly, but sometime they get something catered. Like today apparently, Stiles licks his lips as he smells the scent of grill. Yeah, let’s go eat first.

\--

He’s out on the balcony, his strategy notebook open on the table in front of him. Finally. Lunch had taken forever, as Cora had come in with her own mixed cocktails. It had been fun, but the fact they’re nearly halfway there timewise hadn’t left his mind. It’s really bothering him, he’s here for the money and it doesn’t look like he’s going to get it if they continue like this.

He crosses out Cora and Aiden as a perfect match, meaning he now knows four couples that sat together in ceremony one that aren’t a perfect match.

So just three more and he’ll know one of the eight perfect matches. Fuck’s sake.

This is so not working. They need a confirmation, that’s the only thing that will actually help him.

He sighs, flipping the pages to his personal match ideas. They’re just based on his personal opinions of his contestants and their personalities. To see who he would put together, if he was mtv. Uptil now he only had his notes from the first week, when he hadn’t really known anyone that well.

He laughs now, seeing he’d put himself with Malia. Not a chance in hell buddy. Or well, technically it could still be possible but personality wise..no. That had ended messily. Now that he thinks of it, he had been kind of a dick to the girl. Just dropping her because he lost interest, and because him and Erica started their thing. Should he apologize for it? She’d probably just punch him if he did. She wasn’t known to be good with words.

Still, he had been kind of an asshole. Maybe he should.

He shrugs, deciding to start a new page. The first couple he puts down were Erica and Boyd. He sees something in them. They genuinely make each other happy. Doesn’t automatically mean the show had put them together though. God, he’s so annoyed that he still has no idea how the show made the matches. He’d need to see a perfect match to know that.

Still, speculating wouldn’t hurt anyone.

He writes down Scott next. He still doesn’t really know who Scott would be with. Even after their talk yesterday, he still doesn’t really think it’s Allison. Allison just seems...too good to be true. She’s pretty, kind, funny and everything. And he loves his buddy Scott but he feels like Allison wouldn’t go for him. He writes down Kira instead. He still sees something there.

But maybe he’s thinking too limited. Just because Kira is a girl Scott has actually been hanging out with, doesn’t mean she could be the only one to be his match. Stiles feels like she is the kind of girl people would see Scott with though, someone calm who can balance out Scott’s need to be funny. Someone who can ground him. Kira fits the profile. But now that he thinks about it, Paige would too.

He bites his lip as he puts her name down behind Kira’s, adding a question mark. That could be something.

He starts to move on to Lydia, when he hears someone walk onto the balcony behind him. He turns, not too surprised to see it’s Derek. He gives him a small smile. “Hey.”

Derek gives him a nod and gestures to the lounge chair next to him. “That one free?”

“As free as this country man, sit down.”

Derek sits down and Stiles can see the corners of his lips rising at seeing the notebook on the table. “You any closer?”

Stiles shakes his head. “No, I really can’t do much without a confirmed perfect match. I mean great that we know some people who aren’t couples but there are so many possible couples you know..we can’t eliminate them all.”

Derek nods, understanding. “So what can we do?”

“I really don’t know.” Stiles sighs slighly. “We have no idea how these couples were matched up. If it’s personality, shared interests, similar childhoods or total opposites..”

Derek looks at him with a pitiful smile and Stiles smiles thinking about how he really likes that they’re back to being like this.

Derek leans over, looking closer at the page he’d been working on. “Erica and Boyd?”

“Yeah,” Stiles smiles, “I think they might actually be one.”

Derek’s smile is genuine and wide. “I agree. He’s head over heels for her.”

Stiles smile grows, glad to hear Boyd is as crazy about Erica as he knows she is about him. “And well..I think Scott might be with Kira, but Paige would fit him too.”

“I can see that.” Derek nods seriously. “Who else have you got?”

“I was just starting on Lydia. She thinks it’s Jackson herself, I’m not sure-”

“I thought she was seeing Aiden?”

Stiles grins. “Yeah sort of. I don’t think she’s serious about him though.”

“I don’t like him.” Derek grunts out.

Stiles can’t help it, he laughs at that. Derek raises an eyebrow at him. “Sorry man, the way you said that.”

Derek grins. “I just don’t. He’s a jerk.”

Stiles is still laughing and realizes how much he is enjoying just talking to Derek. Talking strategy with Derek. He likes that Derek is interested in that sort of stuff too.

“Who did you have put down for me then?” Derek suddenly asks, eyes intense as he looks at Stiles.

Stiles feels heavy under his gaze. A blush reaches his cheeks. “I don’t really know, I used to have Erica for you actually.”

Derek frowns. “Really?”

Stiles shrugs, he feels like his cheeks are the brightest red. God, why is this so embarrassing? “Well I don’t know. It was just a feeling back then. But you’ve been leaning towards Braeden lately right?”

God why did he ask that? He sounds like a jealous girlfriend. Pathetic. Then again, he had been acting like a jealous girlfriend this whole time, might as well continue it.

Derek ducks his head, rubbing his hand over his neck like he’s embarrassed. Stiles can even spot a slight blush. He really does like her then. Stiles tries to smile, but he has a sinking feeling in his stomach. God, why does he feel like this? So stupid.

Then Derek shrugs. “She’s a nice girl, yes, but there’s someone else that I like.”

Stiles looks up, confused and curious, to see Derek’s already staring at him. The atmosphere feels different than before, more serious. Meaningful. Derek looks at him and Stiles feels weak under his stare. His stomach tightens, pulling him towards the other man.

He barely hears his own voice when he speaks up, unleashing his curiosity. “Who might that be?”

Derek just huffs out a breath, grinning. The intense pull between them disappearing. He stands up, giving Stiles a last look. “See you later Stiles.”

Stiles is left behind feeling flabbergasted and allows himself to fall down into the couch. He stares up at the moving clouds above him. What had just happened?

\--

“And he was looking right at me!” Stiles feels insane telling the story like this and Erica and Lydia do too if their snickers are anything to judge by.

They were playing monopoly at the picnic table outside. Disney edition. Stiles was destroying them, so obviously they started talking about Derek just to distract him and take his hotels. Bitches.

“Or he meant literally anyone else.” Lydia shakes her head, grinning, as she grabs two $100 notes as she passes go.

“You guys are mean.” Stiles is getting annoyed. “Why on earth would he then not tell me who it was?”

“He might have had his reasons.” Erica says, frowning down at the playing board as if she doesn’t agree with anything that’s happening down there.

“Honestly guys, I’m not making this up.” Stiles is annoyed now.

“We know,” Lydia says, her teasing look melting down into a more serious one, “but we just talked about this on the beach: you might be reading into it too much.”

“Yeah, well whatever, let’s talk about something else because I’m getting mad.” Stiles says as he grabs the dice and throws...three. Fucking great.

“Like what?” Erica asks innocently, grabbing a piece of the watermelon they’d brought with them.

“Like you and Boyd.” He glances at Erica, placing his figurine (Mowgli!!) three places forward. Fuck, that’s Lydia’s turf. She sends him a pleased grin and holds up her hand for his payment. He grunts, but hands it over.

“What about us?” Erica looks at him daringly once he’s done, taking a bite of the melon.

“Would you two want to go in the truthbooth?”

Erica almost spits out the piece of melon again, coughing slightly. She looks up at him bewildered. “Bit early for that, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, I know. But I’ve been thinking we need to start playing this game better.” He shifts on the wooden picnic bend, sitting so he can stretch his legs on the length. “We don’t have all that much time left.”

Lydia straightens up across from him, nodding in agreement. “We really need to start thinking things through better, I agree. What did you have in mind?”

“Well, we’ve been sending couples to the truthbooth because of what reason exactly?”

Lydia frowns. “Well, Cora and Aiden to test out the one match theory. You and Erica because you had a connection. The others were random.”

“Exactly. And now we have no idea what to do right? What’s next?”

“Can you get to the point Stiles? It’s my turn and you still have the dice.” Erica says, looking irritated.

Stiles huffs out a laugh and gives her the dice. He can see Lydia grinning next to her, before turning back to him expectantly.

He clears his throat, looking at Lydia. “Well okay, the point is I want to change strategy. I want to send in couples I actually believe in. Cora and Aiden was purely strategic and it didn’t work. Maybe we should focus on couples that-”

“Yesssss! Last Toy Story house is mine bitches!”

Lydia and Stiles both turn their heads to see Erica grabbing the last card from Toy Story out of the deck and victory pumping. Stiles just chuckles, shaking his head, before continuing. “Couples that actually want to be together. Couples that have been dancing around each other for a while, that at least have a connection. Maybe that’s the best way to go now.”

Lydia nods in understanding and he can see in the sharp look in her eyes she agrees, but also has her doubts.

“So me and Boyd would be an experiment?” Erica huffs out, clearly not on board.

“Well, I mean..an experiment worth a million dollars.”

Erica sighs, pouting as she hands the dice over to Lydia who takes them with an amused smile. Erica looks up at him, genuine look in her eyes. “I’ll think about it, okay?”

That’s more than he had hoped for. He smiles, seeing Allison and Cora enter the back garden and waving them over to join their game. Soon, the slightly grumpy three players that had started out get expanded to six happy ones. Laughter fills the air as Danny angrily throws his Dombo figurine away when Erica charges him all the money he had left. It lands in the remaining watermelon, covering everyone at the table with seeds. Stiles laughs the loudest and wow..he’s really happy to be in this place right now, happy to have met these people. Happy to see Danny isn't holding himself back from having fun just because of the producers knowing. 

After a while bottles of red wine and overly alcoholic cocktails start appearing around the playing board. Disney songs are sung loudly as they’re opened and soon the game has been abandoned in favour of laughing, getting drunk and discussing secrets.

He’d somehow winded up next to Allison, who’s he’s been around a lot, but never actually had a one on one conversation with. She smiles up at him, dimples in her cheeks, squeezing his knee as if they’ve known each other for years.

“We do we never talk, Ally?” Stiles wonders out loud.

“We talk.” Allison says, slight offence hearable in her voice.

“But not really.”

Allison looks at him, squinting her eyes, trying to read him. Then she smirks and moves to face him fully. “Want to do the whole deep conversation getting to know each other thing then Stiles?”

“Absolutely.” Stiles grins.

They start chatting away and Stiles is laughing at how Allison seems to continuously be making fun of the way he started this conversation, constantly diving into the utmost cliché’s: what’s your favourite holiday destination, do you get along well with your family, what are you most proud of, how was your childhood..

“Wait, wait, what? Your family is originally from where?”

Allison looks at him not understanding, one eyebrow raised. “Beacon Hills...I don’t under-”

“We’re from there too!” Stiles almost yells.

Allison’s expression morphs into a surprised laugh. “Are you serious?”

“Yes! Me and Scott grew up there, still live there. My dad’s the sheriff.”

“That’s insane.” Allison laughs, taking another sip from her glass of wine. “Well my dad left there ages ago, but I’ve been there to visit my granddad and stuff.”

Stiles shakes his head. “How crazy is this?”

Allison stares at him for a while, one eye squinted, clearly wondering something. She shifts in her position, but keeps on looking at him. “Maybe the matchmakers found that too.”

Stiles, who’d been about to take another sip of his IPA, halts the bottle at his lips. Is Allison implying what he thinks she is? Scotty must have really got to her. Nice work buddy. “Ayyy nice Allison! Have you finally turned around to my Scotty boy? He’s even cuter when you get to know him, I promise.”

Allison frowns. “What? What do you mean Scott?”

Stiles feels like all colour leaves his face. Oh my god, she hadn’t meant Scott. Shit.

In fact, it sounds like she didn’t even know Scott liked her. Oh my god, he’s just totally outed Scott’s crush. Not that he understands how that apparently wasn’t out yet? Okay, okay whatever he can fix this. Allison is looking at him expectantly, one eyebrow raised. Okay, no he can’t. He stands up, placing his finger on Allison’s lips. “I’ve said too much already Alls, I have to go.”

With that he rushes away, dramatic flare and all, laughing when he hears Allison yell that he’s weird behind him. He turns around, gives her a last air kiss, before going inside. He’s sort of pleased with himself, he could have made that a whole lot more awkward. Now he was just weird, which he didn’t mind being.

He moves into the kitchen, wanting to grab some quick snacks for everyone outside when he spots a reflection in the kitchen door window. He turns around to look into the smaller living room. Derek sitting by himself. He looks lonely, which for some reason hurts Stiles to see.

Frowning, Stiles walks inside. “Hey, what are you doing here by yourself?”

Derek looks up at him and Stiles can see relief flushing through the other man at seeing it’s just Stiles. He likes that, likes that Derek apparently feels comfortable with him.  
“Didn’t really feel like joining the crowd.”

Stiles tries to give a comforting smile as he sits down next to Derek on the couch. “Why? Scared you couldn’t beat us at monopoly?”

Derek huffs out a laugh at that and Stiles smiles. That’s three now on the Derek-laughing-at-his-jokes counter. “Yeah, I was terrified.”

“I would have protected you, made you join me in my victory.” Stiles doesn’t know why he’s being so forward, but he knows he lovesss talking to Derek like this. He loves getting to see the cute little smiles and eyerolls Derek has. And yes that might be drunk Stiles speaking but that’s just because sober Stiles is stupid at admitting these things.

Derek is looking at him like he doesn’t understand what Stiles even is. Stiles gets it, sometimes he doesn’t understand himself either. Then Derek shakes his head, breaking his eye contact with Stiles. He waves his hand around the room, gesturing towards the kitchen table - which is filled with half empty bottles and abandoned red cups. “This..this all is just not my thing. I don’t like.. parties.”

“I can understand that.” Stiles turns towards Derek, drunken energy rushing through him. “So what would you like to do instead?”

“I don’t know. Read, sleep, write.” It’s all so cute, such cute hobbies. “Maybe even take a walk.”

That makes Stiles jump up from his position on the couch, deciding something. He stands in front of Derek now, extending his hand. “Let’s go do it then.”

“What?” Derek looks up at him confused.

“Let’s go take a walk.”

Derek huffs out a breath, the corners of his lips rising. “Where? Around the swimming pool?”

“I mean it Derek. Let’s just go somewhere, walk around.”

Derek looks up at him, his eyes filled with a mixture of confusion and disbelief. “Why would we do that?”

Stiles wants to roll his eyes, but doesn’t. “Because you’re not having fun, I want you –everyone to have fun here.”

Derek’s face melts into an expression Stiles can’t quite read. But then Derek stands up, nodding, and he even grabs Stiles’ hand, motioning for him to take the lead. Stiles didn’t really have anything planned, but it’s even harder to think of something realizing Derek is holding his hand.

He takes them through the front door. The door they never actually use, as they’re mostly in the backyard. They have to walk through a bit of uneven, muddy ground before they reach the main road. Derek has let go of his hand in the meantime and Stiles is both relieved but also notices he already misses the way Derek’s hand had fit into his. They walk down the main road, towards the few shops he knows there are further down. Stiles hadn't actually wanted to walk on roads, but he supposes a hiking trail is a bit much to ask for.

They haven't really talked much on the way and it makes Stiles nervous. Maybe this was the worst idea ever. He’s starting to sober up anyway, his rational thought returning, which isn’t really helping the situation. God maybe Derek hates being out here now. Maybe he hadn’t even wanted to be here, or maybe not with Stiles. Maybe he just wanted to be alone.

Panic is starting to take over as he starts fumbling with the sleeves of his hoodie, pulling them over his hands. He looks at Derek out of the corner of his eye, spotting a slight smile on the other man’s lips. Okay, maybe it isn’t all that bad then.

They walk past the closed shops, Stiles laughing when he sees a giant statue of a hula girl, the actual grass skirt removed. Derek shakes his head at him, but Stiles swears he can see fondness in the movement. The find a burger place still open, the red neon sign one of the one light sources in the tiny centre.

A while later their food is ordered and Stiles sits back against the the brown leather of the booth they’re sitting in. Looking around, he smiles at the mixture of typical Hawaiian and American posters and pictures on the walls. The restaurant was dressed up like an old fashioned American diner, black and white tile floor and everything. A hawaiian touch had been added in the signs and wall painting. Not your usual blonde Marilyn Monroe like pinup, but a dark haired Hawaiian one.

He’s still studying the different art work on the wall when Derek speaks up. “Thank you Stiles.”

Stiles turns around. “Thanks for what?”

Derek shrugs, not looking directly at Stiles. “For this.”

“Ah man it’s nothing. It’s good getting out of the house for a bit, been feeling a bit locked up there lately.”

Derek nods, relief visible in his expression. “I really needed it actually.”

He smiles at Stiles, thankful, and Stiles can’t help but smile back. The waitress arrives with their food and Stiles lets out a squeal at seeing the chili cheese curly fries. They look so gooood. Derek huffs out a laugh at seeing him, shaking his head, and grabs his burger. Stiles feels a blush come to his cheeks and he can’t seem to wipe the pleased little smile of his face. He puts a frie in his mouth and can’t help but think about how much this feels like a date.

“You still not really feel at home in the house?” Stiles asks, taking a sip of his strawberry milkshake.

Derek huffs out a sarcastic sounding breath. “That’s downplaying it.”

“That sucks though Derek, ten weeks of not having a good time.”

Derek opens his mouth to say something, then closes it again. He takes a sip of his coffee - he hadn’t taken a milkshake, much to Stiles’ protest- before continuing. “It’s not that I don’t have a good time, I mean I really do enjoy parts. But the constant pressure to be fun, I don’t take that well.”

“I hate the having to pretend that everything is so amazing.”

Derek snickers. “And you’re horrible at it too.”

Stiles laughs. “Hey fuck off, obviously I’m amazing at everything.”

Derek goes quiet at that, shifting in his seat, the look in his eyes changing from playful to serious. He looks at Stiles, his eyes dropping to Stiles’ lips before looking back into his eyes. Stiles swallows, feeling the intensity of the moment, and unconsciously licks his lips. He sees Derek’s eyes widen, shooting up to his eyes and settling there with a mixture of vulnerability and want visible in them. Stiles swallows, the thought of kissing Derek filling his mind. They’ve had moments like this before, where they both can’t seem to look away, but none had been as intense as this one. Stiles feels as if there’s no one around, as if the diner has disappeared around them and it’s just him and Derek. Just their slightly heavy breathing filling up the room. And maybe Stiles is seeing things he wants to see but it looks like Derek also really wants to kiss Stiles.

Stiles can feel himself leaning forward over the table, almost having no control over the movement anymore. His body is done waiting. He sees Derek stare up at him with something that looks like nerves. The good kind of nerves he hopes. Stiles bites his lip as he places his hand on Derek’s jaw, feeling the rough stubble against the soft palm of his hand. Derek leans into the touch, giving Stiles the sign he needed. Softly, Stiles places his lips on Derek’s.

It feels..so good. It’s soft, gentle. Neither of them wanting to go much further than this now. Their lips grind against each other and Stiles lets his lips fall open slightly. Derek does too and before Stiles knows it Derek’s tongue slips inside. Softly, exploring.

Stiles can’t believe this is happening. He returns Derek’s deepening of the kiss, but briefly, not wanting to go too far.

Slowly, he backs out of the kiss. His lips sticking to Derek’s slightly because of the milkshake he’s had but Stiles choses to intepretent it as his lips not wanting to let go. When he opens his eyes he sees Derek’s already looking at him. A small, unsure smile at his lips.

Stiles looks up at Derek through his eyelashes. “That was okay right? I should have asked.”

Derek’s eyes widen as he shakes his head, grabbing a hold of Stiles’ hand. “That was perfect Stiles.”

Relief rushing through him, even though he knew Derek wouldn’t have minded. He looks at Derek, whose lips are still hanging open and whose pupils are still dilated. Then he smiles, genuine, and Stiles feels like his face will split open from how wide he’s smiling back. They pay for dinner and walk out of the diner back towards the house. Holding hands the entire way back.

They might stop for a kiss or two.


End file.
